Menace (Debt Collector 12)

Menace by Susan Kaye Quinn

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I feel like I'm in literary review hell. Earlier I gave Emma by Jane Austen 3 stars and was about to give this "episode" three stars. That seemed ridiculous to me.

I went in search of my old "rating charts" to verify I really wanted to give this 3 stars. Having located them I see that 2 stars is "OK". This episode is "OK". Subjective ratings in my analytical mind isn't a good thing, I suspect.

First two chapters of this episode had me frustrated. Chapter One I became excessively aware that Wraith was wearing black stiletto heels. Here are my entire notes for Chapter Two:

Ch2: 1-almost go down with my stiletto heels. // 2-help me climb from the cab in my tight skirt and heels. // 3 -The crumbled pavement is tricky in my heels, but I manage it //4 -up, even with my five-inch heels. // 5- from my black stilettos up to my red tailored jacket. // 6 - stepping out of my heels, shucking off my jacket…


All I was doing was counting stiletto heel references. I fell asleep so when I started reading again 14 days later I had no clue what the first two chapters had been about and my notes were entirely useless. Not entirely useless if you really, really want to know that Alexandra Morgan Sterling was wearing five inch black stiletto heels... page after page.

But with effort memory returns. Wraith had been blackmailed to trash her father's "good" work in the previous episode. She's being held captive by mobsters and being forced to use her soul sucking abilities for nefarious reasons, which is the opposite of any life energy exchanges she had ever done.

She is forced to collect from those she would normally pay out to, then taken to place where she paid out all she had earlier collected to folks for atrocious reasons. This made her excessively ill*.

I think that's the primary point in this episode. Zachariel, her leash holder, does help her but I suspect the Zackariel connection is insignificant at this point. If that connection goes anywhere I believe it will be a minor sub-plot.

That's it. I repeat from an earlier review, if you're in for one of these episodes, might as well stay for them all.

I have another note to, "just go for it". I had written many pages about the issues I was having with the consistency of the "rules of magic". It isn't really review material though; it is a critique of the writing more suitable for the manuscript during pre-publication. For review purposes I have been confused or struggled to "suspend disbelief" regarding the effect of collecting and paying out life energy. Maybe at the end of the season I'll post one giant rant explaining what is frustrating me in detail. For recommendation/review purposes, just know that I have some issues with what happens to a debt collector under the various conditions that they collect or pay out life energy. If you're involved in what is going on in the story, most folks won't likely notice it.

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