Vertigo Effect

Jonathan Shade Novel, Book 8

By: Gary Jonas

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Length: 4 hrs

Publisher's summary

Lights, magic, murder!

A movie stuntman dies performing a stunt on location, but the police call it an accident. His girlfriend Angela is a low-level wizard, and when she finds a witch's spent hex bag at the crime scene, she knows it's murder.

Jonathan Shade and Kelly Chan take the case and go undercover to do stunts for the movie while they track down the murderer, but as always, not everything is what it seems.

Vertigo Effect is loaded with action, magic, humor, danger, witches, wizards, Esther the ghost, movie stars, and fun. Listen to it today!

©2016 Gary Jonas (P)2020 Gary Jonas

Vertigo Effect

A very good book!Jonathan Shade comes to the rescue again! A hex bag is found where a stunt man died.This points to more than an accident.We get to hang out with Kelly and the gang while solving this one. Joe Hempel was a terrific narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'

Gripping new Jonathan Shade novel

Jonathan and Kelly are employed as stunts in a movie to investigate the tragic death of another stuntman. Foul play is suspected but no one seems to have enough motives to have killed this man.

This is one of my urban fantasy favorite series, and I was looking to this audiobook since I finished the previous one. Jonathan, Kelly, and Esther are finally settled in their new timeline, so this book a bit more straightforward than previous ones in that respect. The audiobook was a delight to listen to: plenty of action and intrigue, and while Kelly is not the same person as before, the group dynamics feel more like the old ones. I think that this change in Kelly allows for a different and deeper evolution that will have pleasant surprises in the future.

I was hooked to the story from the start. We do not know this dead stuntman, but the circumstances of his death were strange enough to grab my attention. The secondary characters were picturesque and interesting, as in previous books, and they felt distinctive enough that I was able to see them with my mind’s eye.

Joe Hempel’s narration was absolutely flawless and exquisite, no news here. It is not only that it didn’t disturb the story but it elevated it and made the characters more human. There were differences in voices that made following dialogues easy, but those differences were also subtle, which made the dialogues sound natural and the characters alive. Joe Hempel was already one of my favorite narrators before this series, and I am glad that he decided to narrate it, which led me to discover Jonathan Shade’s world.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Another entertaining story in the series

I enjoyed this entertaining story, though it is a bit shorter than the previous Shade books. Disguised as stuntmen, Jonathon Shade and Kelly Chan are called in to investigate a suspicious death that occurred during a movie stunt. One that might have been caused by a witch. This story has plenty of action, humour, magic, intrigue and the great characters we known from the prior books. Jon and Kelly are still getting acclimatizing to one another and the strain in their relationship comes through well. Ester remains the same loyal ghost we have grown to love and Jon is still sarcastic and has some cheesy lines. I really do miss the old Kelly, this new one seems a bit flat and hasn’t grown on me yet. Joe Hempel does a excellent job of the narration in the audiobook, the characters are easily distinguishable and the emotions come through well. I really am enjoying this series and you can’t help but want to see how the relationships will develop and what will happen to them all in the future. I look forward to hearing the next audiobook in the set.