Sunset Specters

The Fifth Jonathan Shade Novel

By: Gary Jonas

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

A sorcerer seeking immortality

The powerful wizard, Henry Winslow, arrives in 1877 and sets out for the Barbary Coast in San Francisco to steal a bit of life energy from his parents before he can head to the 1920s to complete his immortality ritual.

A former slave with a mission

Douglas Freeman is a former slave with a growing collection of vengeful ghosts, and he's headed for the Barbary Coast to kill the last few men on his list.

Champions out of time

Jonathan Shade and Kelly Chan reunite with Brand, the former Sekutar warrior, and Esther, the ghost who has an unbreakable bond with Shade. They set out for California to stop Winslow. But the Barbary Coast is a dangerous place where life is cheap. Their paths will cross with thieves, cutthroats, crimps, prostitutes, gangs, magic, and a supernatural threat. Time is running out on their mission, and one thing is certain - not everyone is going to get out alive.

©2015 Gary Jonas (P)2016 Gary Jonas

The past holds the answers

In this fifth installment, Jonathan Shade and his intrepid band follow the evil wizard, Henry Winslow into the past to 1877. On their way to the Barbary Coast, they encounter a mysterious couple with a hidden past. They encounter magic, thieves, body swapping and more on their adventures to reach Winslow before he can kill his own father.

The fun and adventure of the previous books continues in this arc. We learn more about Winslow and some of our favorite characters are threatened. Life will never be the same for our travelers.

Joe Hemple continues his excellent narration. He truly “IS” Jonathan Shade!

I am excited to listen to the next, last, installment of this time travel arc.

***I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for my own, unbiased, review.***

Entertaining, but not as good as previous books

This was another entertaining book in the Jonathan Shade series. I have to admit that this was not my favorite of the series, but it was still good nonetheless. It still contains all the Jonathan Shade wit, that I really like, and the characters are always interesting. It seemed a little more "rushed" or thrown together than the other books and a couple parts didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I've really liked this series, and I will continue on with it. I listened to the Audible audio version of this book narrated by Joe Hempel. He did a great job giving unique voices to each character and really contributed to the story.

From Ancient Egypt to the Old West

This book picks up moments after the events of "Anubis Nights," and the story will be completed in the sixth book of the series. Jonathan is still on the trail of a time traveling warlock, and he steps directly from the funeral of King Tut to find his friends in 1870s New York City.

I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an unbiased review.

San Francisco in 1877 - So intense!

Note: This is Book 5 in the series and I recommend reading the previous books as there are major things that happened in previous stories that affect characters’s decisions in this book.

Book 4, Anubis Nights, left us with quite the cliff hanger, so I was very glad I didn’t have to wait too long for this book to come out on audio. Jonathan Shade and his crew are still hunting Henry Winslow through time. Jonathan, Kelly Chan, and Ankhesenamun were yanked from ancient Egypt into 1877 at the end of the previous book. At the beginning of this book, Jonathan & Kelly are reunited with Brand and Esther, and they all have the opportunity to bring the confused Ankhesenamun up to speed.

And that’s the perfect set up for things to go very, very wrong. First, they finish traveling to San Francisco, hoping to catch up to the sorcerous Henry Winslow before he expects it and well before he can complete the next stage of his immortality ritual. Meanwhile, Douglas Freeman, a former slave, has suffered a great loss. He’s made a list of men who must die. Vengeful, angry ghosts accompany him as he tracks his quarry to San Francisco.

San Francisco is a mixing pot of cultures but it’s far from any kind of equality in 1877. Might still makes right and being any skin tone other than white leaves you with plenty of extra hurdles. Very few establishments outside of China town will serve Kelly Chan and nearly everyone assumes she is Jonathan’s slave. This provides plenty of opportunities for Kelly to set people right, much to my amusement. I’m really glad that the author didn’t ignore these facets of historical San Francisco as it made the story very interesting; Jonathan and crew can’t help but apply their 21st century standards to whatever time period they happen to be in.

The bad guy is very bad indeed! Henry Winslow is a very formidable foe as we saw in Book 4. That continues on in this book, though his powers have grown a bit. Still, Jonathan and crew think they can take him if they can just get the right combo of might, luck, and surprise going. At the very least, they can mess up this stage of his immortality ritual. For the most part, Winslow ignores them (or tosses them over houses) until they become a true nuisance. Then, there is hell to pay. There is this one scene that was a little bit of a tear jerker. Jonathan, in the first trilogy, managed to undo a few deaths with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. However, I don’t know if that will be possible this time around. This book’s description doesn’t lie about not everyone getting out alive.

In the previous book, I felt it was a bit silly that all 3 main female characters were in love with Jonathan. That theme was carried forth in this book, but now things are more complicated. Kelly and Jonathan had this romantic relationship in ancient Egypt and they continue that in 1877, but now they have Brand (Kelly’s ex-boyfriend) and Esther (a ghost who’s had a crush on Jonathan for years) to pay witness to it. This makes for some uncomfortable moments for these friends. However, I am better with the idea of Jonathan being the center of so much female attention now that I’ve read this book, especially in light of how this one ends.

OK, leaving all this mushy romance stuff to the side, Jonathan has more than one bad guy to deal with in this book. He and Douglas Freeman eventually cross paths and a deal is struck to assist each other, as they have one bad guy in common. This eventually brings plenty of pain and a few broken bones to Jonathan as he fights a man who is near indestructible. I quite enjoyed how he resolved that issue.

In the end, this is one of my favorite books of the series. There’s a lot going on in San Francisco in 1877 and a lot going on with Jonathan and his crew. The books ends on a bittersweet note with a bit of suspense for what will come next. So looking forward to Book 6!

I received a free copy of this audiobook.

The Narration: Yet again, Joe Hempel continues to be the perfect Jonathan Shade. As per his usual performance, he does an excellent light Chinese accent for Kelly Chan and a Southern drawl for Esther. I liked the little bit of high-and-mighty he put into Ankhesenamun’s voice. There were some pretty emotional scenes in this book and Hempel did a great job getting those emotions across to the listener. Indeed, I believe he must be attached to these characters by now and that really shows in his narration.

Paranormal time travel series

Ghosts, magic, guns, time travel. How do you go wrong. Great characters awesome plot twists.jonas and henpecked deliver a great story that will keep you eagerly awaiting the next chapter in the series. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.