4 out of 4 stars
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A Trace of Revenge is a very enjoyable book by Lyle Howard. It’s core arc surrounds the tale of Matt Walker, a young man who in a moment of extreme violence and great personal tragedy is forced to trade his auditory senses for a special ability in psychometry (the ability to trace the history of objects by touching them). When a spate of murders across the country and piracy in surrounding seas appear interconnected with his history, Matt Walker is unwittingly swept into a world where the players have few, if any compunctions about murder or the consequences of their greed. Will Matt survive? Will his new found friends show themselves to be trustworthy? Will his psychometry prove to be a gift or a curse? Perhaps, most importantly, will justice be served?
Initially, I wasn’t very enthused by the précis provided for the book, but that just goes to show just how much one mustn’t trust the descriptions others give of a book; these treasure troves are a do-it-yourself experience as A Trace of Revenge was a truly a brilliant read.
The author successfully combined themes of personal loss, crime detection, romance, espionage, conspiracy and the supernatural in an inspired kaleidoscope, vividly depicting the world through the eyes of a deaf teenager, a shady billionaire, a disgruntled executive, an unlikely assassin and a psychotic crime boss among several others.
Lyle Howard’s descriptions reveal astute knowledge and passion for nautical activity and baseball. He switches between conversations about the birth of a baseball franchise and the operations of the Coast Guard with uncanny ease, drawing in even readers far less informed on those topics without a hitch. I am one of those and I feel like I have come away from reading this book better educated on those subjects.
The book converged several individual tales in a fast spinning narrative that gyrated and pirouetted like monsoon clouds and left the reader panting for more. While the convergence was truly excellent, the climax was a little too sugary. I am not entirely sure that was great storytelling, but it was certainly very pleasurable reading. Also, there are moments when the tale takes an unlikely turn that makes it less believable, but when a story covers psychometry, perhaps, a few unlikely turns are in good working order.
The book was excellently edited. My entire reading revealed only one typographical error and no grammatical ones. The language applied in the book maintained a casual simplicity that made it rather engaging. I have no reservations in rating the book 4 out of 4 stars. I am eagerly anticipating more from this author.
This book is an easy one to recommend. For the kind of book that it is, I would have expected far more obscenity. A Trace of Revenge mostly steers clear of that. Many readers would enjoy this book. But it would hold a special place in the hearts of people that are into baseball stories, espionage, crime or supernatural books and tales set in a seafaring background. For me, this book did best at presenting the challenges of deaf people in a manner that a person unfamiliar with them could understand.
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A Trace of Revenge
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