Declan Finn's Coven

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Did you ever get the feeling that the thing should have thinged the other thing with the thing or the the thing was going to thing wrong?

Yeah, that's what I'm thingin' too.

But here's the thing: That's okay. Declan Finn has brought us another good one and I'm here to tell you all about it because that's what I do. Sometimes I even make sense.

Protip: Don't let your happiness depend on my making sense. You're likely to end up depressed. But, I mean I tr....

Yeah, not really.

I'm a nutcase and I prefer it that way. It makes me harder to predict.

Except when a new Saint Tommy Novel comes out. Coven is the latest and it's epic. This one has Saint Tommy back home in his native New York. Life is good except when things are trying to kill him and let's face it, that's often. St. Tommy Novels are always action-packed and Coven is no exception.

Seriously, Coven has more boom-boom-pow in it than and Old School Hip Hop track. Seriously, if they ever turn these books into movies (and they're short enough for a two hour movie format to almost work right) they need to get Steven Spielberg direct with special assistant Michael Bay. Bay for the special effects and Spielberg for plot and acting, and general this-is-a-movie-that-is-good-for-more-than--its-special-effects thing. Yeah, I think that would work.

I mean, how else would you do a mystical clay Iron Man suit? Or flying bolts of lighting? Or just plain old gunshots and explosions? Maybe we could borrow a Phantom of the Opera director for the mist effects because I've seen it three times live and they've never failed to impress. I mean, they're just... yeah.

What mist effects you ask? READ THE BOOK!!!

Seriously, Coven is worth your time. I loved it.

But wait! There's more!

 Tommy's friends are back and they are some bad mamma-jammas. Combat-exorcists, kids who have trained with the Swiss Guard, a shotgun wielding wife, they're all there and they do what they do best: create mayhem.

No, not that stupid commercial. Please try to keep up.

Listen, if you're going to keep making corny jokes, you're going to start sounding like me. You don't want that, do you?

Where was I again?

Oh yes. Coven.

Loved that story!

And this time, St. Tommy needs all the help he can get because he's missing his god-given superpowers, properly known as charisms. So, no bi-location, no levitation, no anything. It's kind of scary. When you're used to seeing the hero rescued by God and he's not, it builds tension. When he can't just magic his way out of a fight, it gets intense. No fancy tricks in a fight equals a much harder fight. Oh, and who is he fighting?

This time it's a military base and Child Protective Services that house the demons and it fits. Anyone who follows this blog knows I love all of those who risk their lives to protect ours, but the way Finn lays it out just works. "Team Building Exercises" indeed. I think he has a point here though.

See, in the real world, Planet Earth, circa 2020, not all is as it seems. Finn's book places demons and their lackeys in the roles of those who are supposed to be protecting us and he's not wrong. Just about everyone has their own agenda, especially in a country like the United States. This is a good thing most of the time.

Then again, sometimes you get a demon infested CPS worker and well...

Yeah, someone needs to put her in check.

I enjoyed that part as I haven't always had the happiest of times with family court in the past. Divorced dads rarely do. I mean, I wouldn't wish this on Tommy and his family or anybody really, but it has a very realistic feel to me. Then again, I'm the guy who got a visit from a CPS worker on the day my oldest daughter was born for the horrible crime of cutting her nails so she wouldn't scratch her face to pieces, so I may be a bit biased.

Of course, the actions scenes in Coven are amazeballs and Tommy's power armor is unbelievably awesome. Seriously, Tony Stark needs to get himself a set of this stuff. Maybe then he'd stop being such a girlie-man and whining every time he gets all shot up. If this stuff can heal a person, then it's better than his junk. Except that it can't fly. Flying would make it better. Then again, no power armor suit is perfect and if its good enough for a Clan Elemental then it's good enough for Tommy.

(Gratuitous Battletech Joke there. I hear both of the people who got it laughing.)

The Big Bad is kind of more Bad than big. I mean, he's basically just a normal sized human being but he's definitely Bad, just like Michael Jackson in the music video of the same name, except not as well dressed. I think. I don't specifically remember what he was wearing.

An, OH BOY, is he well armed. I'm not going to say with what, but trust me, it's scary dangerous. It's also been used other places, but not quite this well and definitely never in this manner. I liked it. Honestly, it made more sense for said doohickey to be used in the way it was than the ways I've seen it used before too. I like this idea. I mean, I'm not going to tell you what the doohickey was or how it was used, but trust me, you'll like it. Unless you disagree with me. But don't worry the fact that you're wrong doesn't make you that guy. Probably. Well, maybe. Look, I'm right here, can't we just deal with that? Just this once?

Of course, there is room for a sequel here, but that makes me happy because I love this series and I can't wait to see Tommy send more demons back where they came from. Only maybe I'll buy a bigger bag of popcorn next time because I ran out of it before I realized I'd properly begun eating it while reading this thing. It's one of those "Wait, you mean the real world actually exists right now?" kind of books. I'll be waiting with baited brea...bated breath?

Or sumfin.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Exorcised Demons

Coven: St. Tommy NYPD Book Seven
Declan Finn
Silver Empire, 2020

Coven: St. Tommy NYPD Book Seven is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.