A Case Of Spontaneous Combustion
Book Five in the
Displaced Detective Series
By Stephanie Osborn
Review by Dan L. Hollifield
Type of music/work:
Science Fiction Mystery Adventure
Musicians/Performers/Author(s):
Stephanie Osborn
Published by Twilight Times Books
ISBN:
ISBN: 978-1-60619-197-2
ISBN E-Book: 978-1-60619-196-5
at Amazon
at B&N
Cover Illo by Darrell Osborn
General impressions of the album/book:
Quite possibly the best book in the series so far. Although it
expands upon the characters and situations featured in the previous
books, it can easily stand on its own merits.
Specifics:
Having read all the other books in this series I thought I knew how
good this new one was going to be. But it is even better than I
expected! The characters have grown and developed over the course of
the series- Book 5 reveals just how much they have developed. The story
is amazing, sweeping the reader along as the action and adventure
progresses. Within the first few pages, I was hooked! There's a perfect
blend of all the elements readers of Stephanie Osborn's work have come
to expect; the science is accurate, the adventure is fun, the action is
pure excitement, the romance is perfectly balanced to show Holmes and
Skye to be real people, and the mystery is engaging. Every page gives
the reader more and more until the very end, where the set-up for Book
6 is just enough to keep from being a spoiler. Thank you, Stephanie!
This is the best one yet!
As I said, this series has been running for several years. While it
isn't strictly necessary to have read the previous volumes, having done
so will make the reader's enjoyment of this one even better.
Stephanie's usual practice is to write each book to stand alone, yet to
have some carry-over between them as the series progresses. In effect,
books one and two each tell part of a larger story, as do books three
and four. I expect that book six will be building upon what few
elements remain unresolved at the end of book five.
As a special treat to readers, Stephanie has provided a link to a sample chapter on her personal web page:
The Page of the book
at Stephanie Osborn's Website.
Also included there are links to each purchase point where the book
is sold, more background info, and additional tie-ins to the series.
Background info:
Few can claim the varied background of Stephanie Osborn, the
Interstellar Woman of Mystery. Veteran of more than 20 years in the
civilian space program, as well as various military space defense
programs, she worked on numerous space shuttle flights and the
International Space Station, and counts the training of astronauts on
her resumÈ. Her space experience also includes
Spacelab and ISS operations, variable star astrophysics, Martian
aeolian geophysics, radiation physics, and nuclear, biological, and
chemical weapons effects.
Stephanie holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in four sciences: astronomy, physics, chemistry and mathematics, and she is fluent in several more, including geology and anatomy.
In addition she possesses a license of ministry, has been a duly
sworn, certified police officer, and is a National Weather Service
certified storm spotter.
Her travels have taken her to the top of Pikes Peak, across the
worldís highest suspension bridge, down gold mines, in the footsteps of
dinosaurs, through groves of giant Sequoias, and even to the volcanoes
of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest, where she was present
for several phreatic eruptions of Mount St. Helens.
Now retired from space work, Stephanie has trained her sights on writing. She has authored,
co-authored, or contributed to more than 20 books, including the celebrated science-fiction
mystery, Burnout: The mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281. She is the co-author of the
Cresperian Saga, book series, and currently writes the critically acclaimed Displaced Detective
series, described as Sherlock Holmes meets The X-Files. She recently released the paranormal/horror novella El Vengador, based on a true story, as an ebook.
In addition to her writing work, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery now happily pays it forward,
teaching math and science through numerous media including radio,
podcasting and public speaking, as well as working with SIGMA, the
science-fiction think tank.
Review Copyright 2014 by Dan L. Hollifield
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