Into the Fire

These are the first two novellas of The Casebook of Atticus Priest by Mark Dawson. Not prequels to his first four Atticus Priest full-length novels but rather picking up after his recent hire of Jeremy, aka "Jez", who keeps a "casebook" of impressions and notes gathered from the unique abilities of Atticus Priest to solve seemingly unsolvable cases. 

As I've mentioned in my reviews of the Atticus Priest full-length novels by Mark Dawson, Atticus is one of my favorite characters. When creating a character who has unusual idiosyncrasies or traits, sometimes it's hard to make them "attractive" to readers. I think Mark has found the perfect construct for Atticus Priest. In the first casebook account, the timing seems a bit off because Jez wasn't around when Atticus was still entertaining his use of recreational drugs – at least I can't remember any recent novels with him smoking joints. Nevertheless, these two novels are typically great detective novels with a little murder thrown in for substance. Easily read quickly, "Jez's" first-person depiction of the cases is perfect from an observer's point of view. 

Both of them very different and very entertaining. I highly recommend the first four full-length novels (Atticus Priest, Murder, Mystery, and Crime Thrillers) before the "Casebook" stories, but either way you won't be disappointed.  

Father, you know all of our hearts. May you bless Mark's and keep him writing the stories you have just for him to tell. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.