Harbinger, P.I. 2 Buried Memory by Adam Wright

Harbinger, P.I. 2 Buried Memory by Adam Wright

After taking the time in the first novel to introduce the small rural town in Maine which appears to be the heart of the series, Wright pulls Harbinger over to England for most of the second novel. There he has to interact with a father who can best be described as a self-centered jerk and despite not liking him, immediately does everything daddy asks every time he asks. It lessened my respect for the private detective who is supposed to be tough and unyielding. Yes, I get it that our interactions with family are often different from our interactions with the world, but when dad calls and says I’m sending the private jet for you tomorrow and hangs up, I think the proper response would be to ignore the arrival of the jet until dad has the courtesy to explain why he needs you to drop everything and fly across the Atlantic to see him.

 

Overall, this book was focused on Harbinger’s missing memories. It turns out that there are more of them missing than he thought and I suspect that more and more of them are going to pop up as the series progresses.

 

The best thing about the book was the nine witches who have a gift for prophecy. Prophecy is a challenge for any writer as they need to be vague but interesting. Wright solves this problem by having the nine witches each give little phrases of the prophecy so that it comes out so disjointed that you just want to ignore that they said anything. But it worked for me.