3 out of 4 stars
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Raven's Peak is the first book in World on Fire series by Lincoln Cole. It is an action-packed, supernatural thriller that explores the world of demon hunters.
Haatim Arison is a young, unemployed, Indian man in his twenties, trying to deal with the loss of his younger sister. Although he comes from a wealthy family back in India, to overcome grief and depression, he flees back to Phoenix, Arizona, where he attended university. When George Wertman hires him to follow a young woman and gather evidence he readily accepts. He finds it intriguing and productive at the same time.
Abigail Dressler is a young African American demon hunter who is working for a multinational organization called The Council. She is intelligent, cunning and impulsive. When she is tasked with eliminating George Wertman, dragging Haatim into her world is the last thing she has on her mind.
Raven's Peak is the first book I read by Lincoln Cole and I was extremely impressed with his storytelling. It managed to keep me enthralled from the prologue to the epilogue without a single dull moment in between. It was action packed and dripping with suspense and mystery. The plot was very well thought of and executed.
Both Haatim’s and Abigail’s characters were relatable, though, mysterious at times. Haatim with his naiveté and Abigail with her strong female presence made Raven’s Peak a very interesting read.
The author has a unique view of the world, religion and how it affects the society as a whole. It was admirable how he subtly interjected these into the conversations without going off topic. On a side note, I found it very interesting how the author referred to God as a She throughout the book.
However, I had a few niggles with this book and I will try my best to explain these without handing out spoilers.
According to the author, The Council was a very wealthy and powerful organization that had its roots buried deep in the system. So, their inability to provide its’ soldiers with adequate aliases was very frustrating. Also, they had the ability to order air strikes and afford advanced technology but couldn’t think of using phone tracking to locate a certain character.
At times, the author forgot to stand by the statements he made. For an instance, at the very beginning, he mentions a powerful demon cannot possess an adult for more than a few hours without destroying it. However, this was contradicted soon after.
The first official meeting between the two main protagonists was weak as well. In my point, there was no need for Abigail to introduce herself to Haatim. She could have simply vanished after destroying the evidence he had against her.
Also, sometimes the author disregarded certain facts when it comes to action sequences. For example, the villains cut off electricity to a building during the daytime. I was very confused as to why and what it would gain in that context. The dialogs that followed this incident showed that he completely forgot about the power outage. It made me say “No electricity, genius!” out loud.
Furthermore, the author had a tendency to ignore police investigation protocols in so many instances that I cannot go into in my spoiler-free review.
Although I am no expert, I noticed a lot of grammatical issues while reading Raven’s Peak. These, of course, can be remedied easily enough.
So in conclusion, I give this book a 3 out of 4 rating. If the author could have solidified the above-mentioned facts, this would have been a solid four star for me. Raven’s Peak is ideal for suspense, thriller and paranormal genre fans. All in all, Raven's Peak is an excellent start a great series and I am looking forward to reading the next book as soon as it is released.
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Raven's Peak
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