Krewe Of Hunters Is At It Again

 I've been reading Heather Graham since my teen years.  She writes good stories, whether they're historical, suspenseful, or paranormal.  Her latest trilogy involves the Texas Krewe of Hunters.  They're a group specially formed by the FBI that all have one common talent:  they can see and speak to the dead.  They first appeared in The Unseen, which takes places in San Antonio and involves ghostly happenings and murders at a hotel.  Logan Raintree and Kelsey O'Brien first meet to investigate the hotel, and from this book the Texas Krewe of Hunters is formed.  Logan, Kelsey, Sean, Kat, Jane, and Tyler all become trained and certified with the FBI to travel the country and investigate crimes that have a touch of the paranormal.  They're smart, gifted, and have a reputation as "unusual FBI agents".  

The Unholy takes the group to Los Angeles, and the investigation of a murder involving the son of the owner of a well known special affects company.  The studio is located directly next to a very old cemetery, and the studio itself has been around for decades.  They're currently producing the costumes and effects for a remake of a 1930's film involving a mummy, an ancient curse, and murder. The original film was clouded in murder, too.  But now someone is killing people disguised as Amun Mopat, the alleged  evil magician who lived during the time of Ramses II.  How is it all connected?  And can the Krewe--especially Sean, a film effects wizard, put the pieces together before more people are killed?  How will his budding feelings for artist Madison Devril play into this investigation?  Oh--and guess what--Sean and Madison can both see and hear the dead.  One very special spirit even hangs out at Madison's apartment.  

The story of Amun Mopat continues in the second novel of this trilogy The Unspoken.  While still in Los Angeles, Kat is tagged to go to Chicago to find out if the drowning of a diver in Lake Michigan was an accident or murder.  It's got the Krewe's attention because the diver was a well known expert on a local shipwreck:  The Jerry McGuen, which mysteriously sank in the lake 100 years before. When the ship sank, it was on its way to Chicago with a cargo hold full of artifacts from the real Amun Mopat's burial site in Egypt.  The ship went down with 60 souls, and no one has been able to find it.  Until now.  

But someone is willing to kill for the treasure.  But who is dressing up as a mummy?  Who is diving the wreck?  What are they looking for?  Kat soon arrives and meets Will Chan--a member of the original Krewe of Hunters.  He's been in Chicago on other business, and finds himself becoming part of this investigation.  The two soon find themselves diving the newly discovered wreck; Kat is having dreams and visions of what happened to the ship just before it sank.  What are all the dreams and visions trying to say?  The rest of the Krewe soon arrive in Chicago and the investigation swings into action.  Just who was Amun Mopat, and why is someone trying to steal the artifacts from the bottom of Lake Michigan?

I found The Unholy to be a bit thin as far as a storyline goes.  It's definitely readable and an entertaining story, but not much to it.  The Unspoken was much much better.  I loved the Egyptian history and diving the wreck of the Jerry McGuen.  There was a much more solid story and more to work with in this novel that the previous story and many more suspects.  I figured out who "did it" in the The Unholy pretty quickly, but The Unspoken  took a little longer to figure out.  

The third in this trilogy is called The Uninvited and it will be out in paperback this week.  I will definitely pick it up.  

Ratings:  The Unholy 2/5 for weak storyline and not much action.
The Unspoken 3/5 fascinating look at Egyptian history and shipwrecks.

Both are available as mass market paperbacks and e-books at your nearest bookstore.

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Krewe Of Hunters Is At It Again