Desecration

Review of Desecration by J. F. Penn 

Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: Death isn't always the end.

LONDON. When the body of a young heiress is found within the Royal College of Surgeons, Detective Sergeant Jamie Brooke is assigned to the case. An antique ivory figurine found beside the body is the only lead and she enlists Blake Daniel, a reluctant clairvoyant, to help her discover the message it holds.

When personal tragedy strikes, Jamie finds her own life entwining with the morbid fascinations of the anatomists, and she must race against time to stop them claiming another victim.

As Jamie and Blake delve into a macabre world of grave robbery, body modification, and the genetic engineering of monsters, they must fight to keep their sanity, and their lives.

My Review:

I return to another book by J. F. Penn with the novel, Desecration, which by the way is a very appropriate title considering some of the things that happen in this book.

Our main character is a young woman named Jamie who is also a police officer. But we don’t begin with Jamie the police officer. Instead we first glimpse the Jamie who is the mother of a dying child. This is a side of her life that she keeps secret from most of her colleagues.

She the children’s hospice for work, hoping to leave the disturbing images of her daughter dying behind. When she gets her next case though, all she gets is even more death, and we are not just talking about the murder victim, Jenna.

Digging deeper into the murder victim’s investigations she finds out about the underside of a morbid death worship type culture. One suspect, the love interest of Jenna’s, makes a living by posing dead bodies in provocative positions and then selling them to the highest bidder.

Others, Jenna’s parents, use the dead bodies for the advancement of science. At least that is what they claim but after seeing the freakish specimen’s in jars at a local museum Jamie begins to wonder how any of this can be legal.

For me it seemed to be more of a cautionary tale about how even art and science can go too far in their effort for pleasure and the greater good. This is what could happen when someone makes art or even science their god. The ends can justify the means in the eyes of such people and even make them forget their own humanity.

I will warn you. This story is macabre and downright creepy but there are some scary possibilities. I hope I don’t live to see this reality but it is something to think about, and possibly give you nightmares. Also, like the last novel I reviewed by Penn, the language is sometimes a bit strong.

It is a good book to read if you like mystery and thriller novels that make you think, and if you can stomach the dark aspects of it. In fact, you might not want to read this when you are eating. It is up to you.

I am not really sure whether I want to recommend this one or not. Just remember, you have been warned.

One Day in Budapest

Review of One Day in Budapest by J. F. Penn

Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: A relic, stolen from the heart of an ancient city.
An echo of nationalist violence not seen since the dark days of the Second World War.

Budapest, Hungary. When a priest is murdered at the Basilica of St Stephen and the Holy Right relic is stolen, the ultra-nationalist Eröszak party calls for retribution and anti-Semitic violence erupts in the city.

Dr Morgan Sierra, psychologist and ARKANE agent, finds herself trapped inside the synagogue with Zoltan Fischer, a Hungarian Jewish security advisor. As the terrorism escalates, Morgan and Zoltan must race against time to find the Holy Right and expose the conspiracy, before blood is spilled again on the streets of Budapest.

One Day In Budapest is a chilling view of a possible future as Eastern Europe embraces right-wing nationalism. A conspiracy thriller for fans of Daniel Silva, where religion and politics intersect.

My Review:

I finally got a chance to read (and thus review) J. F. Penn’s work. It was enclosed near the end of a special e-book edition containing twelve mystery stories for ninety-nine cents. I had bought a while ago but had not idea that any of her books were in there.

This book, however, was only a novella. I also did not know that. But maybe it was best that start on a small sample rather than a full length novel.

I think that this novella was either number four or three in her series featuring Morgan Sierra as its protagonist. I believe that it is part of the ARKANE series. The author does have at least one other series.

The story starts with a bang. Dr. Morgan Sierra, whose father is Jewish, arrives in Hungary to deliver an old Jewish relic to a local synagogue on very same day that a priest is murdered nearby. An ancient relic from Hungary’s past is stolen by the murders and a Star of David is painted at the crime scene.

Feeling that they have been betrayed by the Jewish population, Hungarians begin to riot all over the city of Budapest, many of them closing in on the synagogue. Joining up with a man named Zoltan who she meets at the synagogue, Morgan determines to find this holy relic to prevent as many deaths as possible.

When some Jewish citizens are later symbolically killed by the river, Morgan knows she cannot leave without stopping whatever chaos the Nationalists are trying to exploit. When she finds proof of where the relic is and who is involved, she will stop at nothing to make sure that she can prove it to the Hungarians before the violence escalates. But will she make it in time?

I won’t give away most of the story but here’s my two cents. The good parts of this story are almost everything. It is fast paced and mostly believable. The story keeps you turning the pages. The characters seem to be mostly well done also.

The negatives was that the f-bombs were used a little too frequently for me taste and the ending seemed somewhat abrupt for my taste. I realize that part of it was the set up for the novel but somehow it felt like something was missing at the end of the story.

Overall though, I recommend it but with some reservations due to the language and some general grossness.

Contains: language, some sexuality, and cannibalism (yuck)