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	Stephanie Lynch is one half of the writing team of Marilu Mann and Cai Stephan. She received her RWA Pro Pin with a double rejection from Tor and Silhouette. After indulging in chocolate, she dove back in to write some more. Her team writes Bombshells, Paranormals and Contemporaries with a distinct preference towards Paranormals. Her reading tastes run from esoteric to frivolous. She is just as happy reading Carl Jung as she is Nora Roberts. But don't ask her which is the better writer. Nora will win every day! In her everyday life, she is a professional Tarot Consultant. You can find out more about that at her website www.tarotbyarwen.com. Hobbies include aviculture, reading, computers, reading and cooking (she collects cookbooks). Stephanie belongs to the Heart of Denver Romance Writers chapter of RWA and the From the Heart Romance Writers online chapter.

EIGHT OF SWORDS
David Skibbins
St. Martin’s Press, 4/2006
ISBN: 0-312-35225-5

Move over all you mystery solvers! Warren Ritter is roaring into town and he doesn’t do anything the “right” way. In fact, he isn’t even really Warren Ritter, but as far as the FBI is concerned, he wouldn’t have it any other way. Our hero has what you might refer to as a colorful past if you were being nice and if you weren’t, well, you might call him a guy on the lam. His sister shows up and announces his real name for everyone to hear. You can forgive her this since she thought he was dead!

Because he likes to stay off the grid, Warren does tarot readings. He actually thinks he is conning folks, but he gets better readings than he realizes. So he keeps going. But the day a young girl shows up for a reading everything changes. He knows in his gut that something is going to happen. And happen it does. The girl disappears and then her mother, who asked Warren for help as well, turns up dead.

So he dives in even though he doesn’t much want to. His good friend Sally serves as his sounding board and we learn a lot about Warren through her. She’s disabled and spends her time hacking computers. Warren also has a cop for a friend which seems the antithesis to his grouchy, abrasive, don’t trust the man, self.

So what happened to Heather, the young woman who disappeared? Who killed her mother? Why is Warren one of the suspects? In this classic “I’m not the killer so I have to find out who is” there are twists a-plenty. This is a satisfactory read that keeps you turning the page just to see what Warren will say or do next. You may not like him, but you will have to admire him for his full-out frontal attack on life.

Stephanie Lynch

HIGH PRIESTESS
David Skibbins
St. Martin’s Press, 4/2006
ISBN: 0-312-35233-6

High Priestess offers us another shot at Warren Ritter. David Skibbins, in his second novel, gives our anti-hero quite the puzzle in one Mr. HighTower. As a Tarot reader myself, I loved the naming of the character. The Tower card is the one that signifies a destruction of self based on lies we tell ourselves. And Warren has told some real beauts in the lie department.

Mr. Hightower knows all about Warren’s past. And he isn’t afraid to blackmail him into helping him. His church members are dying in what are seemingly accidents. But Mr. Hightower doesn’t think they are just accidents. Not with the death threats he and other church leaders are getting. The average reader at this point is asking me why doesn’t the minister go to the police?

Well, Mr. Hightower isn’t a minister. He’s a priest. A high priest of the local Satanic church to be precise. The cops aren’t inclined to take him seriously. You do need to have read Eight of Swords, the first in this series, to get some connections as to why Mr. Hightower would come to Warren in the first place, but it is as good a read as this one is.

Warren agrees. Not because of the information Hightower has, but because he says he will pay Warren cold hard cash. And that is something our anti-hero is always in need of. But this case isn’t as easy as he thought. He soon finds himself in some very hot water up to his neck. This could spell the end for him as well as the church who hired him.

You will find out more about Warren’s past and to just what lengths he will go to hide them. Come along for another wild ride with Warren Ritter as David Skibbins gives us a tour around Berkely.


Stephanie Lynch

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