Thunderbird Falls

Thunderbird Falls by C.E. Murphy

Walker Papers #2

It's the end of the world…

Again.

For all the bodies she's encountering, you'd think beat cop Joanne Walker works in Homicide. But no, Joanne's a reluctant shaman who last saved mankind three months ago—surely she deserves more of a break! Yet, incredibly, "Armageddon, Take Two" is mere days away.

There's not a minute to waste.

Yet when her spirit guide inexplicably disappears, Joanne needs help from other sources. Especially after she accidentally unleashes Lower World demons on Seattle. Damn. With the mother of all showdowns gathering force, it's the worst possible moment for Joanne to realize she should have learned more about controlling her powers. Or to discover she's being lied to…

Joanne, having refused to learn any more about her powers is still completely winging everything. When she literally stumbles upon the body of a woman she blinding goes searching in the land of the dead for answers. As a result of this hasty decision she loses her spirit guide Coyote's support for most of the book. As a result, she becomes almost too trusting and accepts a new teacher vowing to heed everything she says. She gets caught up in a plot to free an ancient being that is supposed to heal the world; heal things that Joanne has messed up herself in her overused of raw power rather then honing it like she should have.

Joanne's continuing adament refusal to accept her gifts and the mystical became quite tedious in this book. Actually, it was already starting to bother me in the first book, but I figured she would just need a little time to accept things and change her worldview. However, she actually seems to have regressed and her denial is that much worse since she really knows she has powers, just chooses to ignore them. She reminds me of a petulant child and I hope for the series sake that she starts to grow up and step up to her responsibilities. Otherwise, I think I'll be turned off this series.

The men in this series continue to be my favorite parts. They are all so strong and sturdy, very firm in their ideals, the complete opposite of Joanne. I think they are really great way to balance out Joanne, and really helped me stick with the book even with my annoyance at her. I am starting to wonder if there is a potential love interest between Joanne and Morrison. He always seems so worried about her when she gets hurt, and he is always popping up in her thoughts. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think their antagonistic attitudes towards each other could really make for an interesting relationship.

This book really just didn't live up to the first one. It was very slow and we didn't really have a "bad" guy until the very end of the book. The entire time I was waiting for Joanne to step up, but she never really did. She just went into everything half-hearted and refused to really learn or accept anything. I hope the next book shows a new and changed Joanne, because he choices to date have been extremely exasperating.

Rating:

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Thunderbird Falls (The Walker Papers, Book 2)