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Welcome!! My name is Paul Lappen. I am in my early 60s, single, and live in Connecticut USA. This blog will consist of book reviews, written by me, on a wide variety of subjects. I specialize, as much as possible, in small press and self-published books, to give them whatever tiny bit of publicity help that I can. Other than that, I am willing to review nearly any genre, except poetry, romance, elementary-school children's books and (really bloody) horror.

I have another 800 reviews at my archive blog: http://www.deadtreesreviewarchive.blogspot.com (please visit).

I post my reviews to:

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I am always looking for more places to post my reviews.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Vic: Never Give Up

Vic: Never Give Up, Jerry Gill, Ann Darrow Co., 2014

This is the third in a series of novels about your average female resident of the early 20th century who isn't really so average.

Victoria Custer's "day job" is as a travel and adventure writer for her local, Nebraska, newspaper. Using the pen name Vic Challenger, she travels to places that even experienced, male adventurers would hesitate to visit. Vic has a very good reason; she has inside of her an avatar of a 100,000-year-old cavewoman  named Nat-ul. She came from an era where violent death could come at any moment. If Nat-ul has survived all these centuries, then Nu, her lover, must also be alive. That search is the real reason for Vic's adventures.

Vic and her friend, Lin Li, are booked on a very fancy ship for a trip to England in a couple of weeks, so they make a quick trip to the Grand Canyon for some camping. They will take some photos, write some articles; it will be fun, right? They are taken prisoner by some Native American warriors who accuse them of being human slavers targeting Native American children, they are later taken prisoner by actual human slavers, and they come across a bottomless cavern full of what looks like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. They manage to reach their ship for England with minutes to spare.

Once in Britain, they head for Scotland, intending to camp in the ruins of a Scottish castle on the shore of Loch Ness (home of the famous Monster). The local inhabitants are tormented by the mysterious disappearances of animals, and people. Some say that the Loch is inhabited by a number of "beasties." Other tales are about a family of human cannibals. Vic and Lin learn, to their horror, that both stories are true. Amid all this Vic just misses meeting an artist named Stu James, who she is sure is the reincarnation of Nu, her lover.

I totally enjoyed this book (and this series). It's got a strong female main character, it's got plenty of action and brushes with death, and it would make a really good movie. This is very much worth reading.

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