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Iona Kyle Series #1
Dark Equinox
Book One of the Iona Kyle Series Psychic visions of absolute evil. The moon is full and the people of Edinburgh are scared. They have good reason-a maniac is killing women and carving pentagram symbols into their bodies. Fake clairvoyant, Philip Tarot sees one of the victims being dumped and faces a choice. Reporting the incident makes him a mundane eyewitness, anonymous and quickly forgotten, but passing the information as psychic visions will take Phil down a different path to fame. Life changes overnight with the latter option. The killer is caught and the media love their new celebrity, but the limelight brings unwelcome attention from genuine psychic, Iona Kyle. More disturbingly, Phil is approached by the Sorority, a powerful occult circle presided over by Jessica Crowley, granddaughter of the magician Aleister Crowley. The murders, Iona realizes, were the start of something much bigger-and something unbelievably evil.
286 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
9 people want to read
About the author
Ian Jarvis
8 books43 followersIan was born in the north of England, where he worked for three hectic decades as an operational firefighter with the West Yorkshire Fire Service. He lives in York, where he writes comedy and humorous detective novels chronicling the exploits of private investigator Bernie Quist. A modern-day Sherlock Holmes, the eccentric Quist operates as a consultant detective from an office on Baker Avenue in York. His assistant is Watson, although this Watson is a streetwise youth from the Grimpen council estate and he's definitely no doctor. The mismatched duo take on bizarre cases which invariably lead into the realms of the supernatural, a shadowy world that, thanks to his dark secret, Quist is all too familiar with.
Ian travels regularly, usually through Asia and the Americas. His interests include walking the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales, natural history with an emphasis on birds, real ale, and ridding the world of all known evils.
He also feels decidedly peculiar speaking in the third person and may have to do this in the future using a sinister ventriloquist's doll.
You can visit Ian at https://www.ianjarviswriter.com/
Or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ian.jarvis.165
Ian travels regularly, usually through Asia and the Americas. His interests include walking the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales, natural history with an emphasis on birds, real ale, and ridding the world of all known evils.
He also feels decidedly peculiar speaking in the third person and may have to do this in the future using a sinister ventriloquist's doll.
You can visit Ian at https://www.ianjarviswriter.com/
Or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ian.jarvis.165
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 9, 2015
Philip Tarot is a fake psychic who witnesses a murder in an Edinburgh graveyard while visiting the grave-site of his deceased wife. At first he wants to report the murder but realizes that claiming he saw it in a psychic vision would be a boost for his career. At first the detectives are skeptical but when the murderer is caught, Philip becomes a hero and a celebrity. But it also places him in the sights of The Sorority, an occult group going back to Aleister Crowley and now headed by his granddaughter. They are using a series of murders to start a chain of events that will change the world for the worst. He also gets the attention of Iona Kyle, a real occultist and psychic, who knows the extreme danger he is in.
Dark Equinox is best described as a paranormal mystery. There is very little that is horrific about the plot and it travels well frequented paths in the occult and supernatural thriller genres. The author Ian Jarvis moves the action well although I would preferred a little more action and less verbal explanations at times. His best quality is the ability to bring Edinburgh to life. He combines action with place quite well. Yet there was an old fashioned feel to some to the dialogue. I had to keep reminding myself that most of the novel is set in present day rather than the 40s, where the prologue is set. Dark Equinox is titled “Book one of the Iona Kyle series“ yet Iona is not the main character nor the most interesting. Most of the pleasure in this novel centers on Philip Tarot, a morally ambiguous man whose love for his teenage daughter surpasses his own questions about his chosen profession. There is a nice scene early on where he tries to explain to his daughter that telling a lie is not always bad while realizing it is he who has crossed that line. It helps set up Philip’s developing dilemma as he go in deeper to his own lies and places him and his daughter in danger. Two other interesting characters are the detectives Angie Blair and Bernard Fry. Frye is a die-hard skeptic while Blair is a little skeptical but is willing to believe if it helps her solve the murder. Their different styles adds a nice level of tension to the mystery.
It is the characterization and the intriguing premise of fake psychic helped by real psychic that hooked me initially. But there are too many issues to make the novel successful in my eyes. First, there is Iona Kyle, the supposed heroine of the story. Compared to the other three I mentioned she comes across flat. The attempt by the author to make her a bit of a mystery herself gets in the way of the reader developing any empathy for her. Yet even when we find out more about her, it feels more like a standard plot twist than the type of development that involves the reader.
Which brings up the plot twists themselves. The paranormal mystery has been around for a while and is laden with formula and gimmicks. Unfortunately the author tends not to avoid any of them. There is pretty much every occult trick in the books thrown in from Nazis to mind control to rescuing spirits. When so many are thrown in, we also expect the formula that goes with them. We are introduced to the characters fairly quickly, but it is no surprise to us when we find out who the last potential victim of the Sorority will be. It fits the formula.
This being the first book of a series, there is always room for improvement. I would like to see Iona become more real and vulnerable and see perhaps a mystery that examines those vulnerabilities. There are a number of nice things about this novel but it doesn’t rise over the more generic paranormal thrillers that are glutting the market. I might recommend this to the avid supernatural mystery fan but not too many other readers.
Dark Equinox is best described as a paranormal mystery. There is very little that is horrific about the plot and it travels well frequented paths in the occult and supernatural thriller genres. The author Ian Jarvis moves the action well although I would preferred a little more action and less verbal explanations at times. His best quality is the ability to bring Edinburgh to life. He combines action with place quite well. Yet there was an old fashioned feel to some to the dialogue. I had to keep reminding myself that most of the novel is set in present day rather than the 40s, where the prologue is set. Dark Equinox is titled “Book one of the Iona Kyle series“ yet Iona is not the main character nor the most interesting. Most of the pleasure in this novel centers on Philip Tarot, a morally ambiguous man whose love for his teenage daughter surpasses his own questions about his chosen profession. There is a nice scene early on where he tries to explain to his daughter that telling a lie is not always bad while realizing it is he who has crossed that line. It helps set up Philip’s developing dilemma as he go in deeper to his own lies and places him and his daughter in danger. Two other interesting characters are the detectives Angie Blair and Bernard Fry. Frye is a die-hard skeptic while Blair is a little skeptical but is willing to believe if it helps her solve the murder. Their different styles adds a nice level of tension to the mystery.
It is the characterization and the intriguing premise of fake psychic helped by real psychic that hooked me initially. But there are too many issues to make the novel successful in my eyes. First, there is Iona Kyle, the supposed heroine of the story. Compared to the other three I mentioned she comes across flat. The attempt by the author to make her a bit of a mystery herself gets in the way of the reader developing any empathy for her. Yet even when we find out more about her, it feels more like a standard plot twist than the type of development that involves the reader.
Which brings up the plot twists themselves. The paranormal mystery has been around for a while and is laden with formula and gimmicks. Unfortunately the author tends not to avoid any of them. There is pretty much every occult trick in the books thrown in from Nazis to mind control to rescuing spirits. When so many are thrown in, we also expect the formula that goes with them. We are introduced to the characters fairly quickly, but it is no surprise to us when we find out who the last potential victim of the Sorority will be. It fits the formula.
This being the first book of a series, there is always room for improvement. I would like to see Iona become more real and vulnerable and see perhaps a mystery that examines those vulnerabilities. There are a number of nice things about this novel but it doesn’t rise over the more generic paranormal thrillers that are glutting the market. I might recommend this to the avid supernatural mystery fan but not too many other readers.
March 12, 2015
Dark Equinox by Ian Jarvis is not a horror novel, but rather a supernatural thriller. So if you’re looking for decent, light reading that focuses on police procedural themes and the occult, you won’t be disappointed. You’ll find psychics, occultists, psychic occultists, ritual magick, tough cops, weak cops, terrorism, a drooling demonic spirit, and a stinging indictment of our celebrity-obsessed culture.
The writing was fine, though occasionally dipped more into telling us things rather than showing us. A prime example: “Fifty-five years old, bald and overweight, Carnegie was a typical old-school copper, divorced and world-weary.” I’d rather the writer showed us these qualities rather than simply telling us about them. More adjectives don’t always make a scene more descriptive, and if you limit your characters to recognizable tropes, they become interchangeable and uninteresting.
Touted as being the first in the “Iona Kyle Series,” there’s actually not very much of Iona Kyle in it compared to the other characters. Multiple protagonists don’t have to be a problem in a novel, but marketing sets expectations, and when they’re not fulfilled, we’re left with a feeling of something missing. Iona is herself a somewhat mysterious, unknowable figure, doing good occult works to make up for a terrible past, but she lacks the depth that the other main characters possessed: Phil and Angie. Phil was the true star of the novel, a conflicted figure who does a series of bad things for what he thinks are good reasons. Angie was stolid, dependable, and interesting more for what she experienced through the story than who she was. Other side characters were brought in and out to heighten the tension, with mixed results.
The plot moved forward at an even pace, moving from Phil to Angie to occasional bad guys to even more occasional Iona Kyle. Head-hopping from the limited omniscient perspective was somewhat jarring in some of the chapters. What was most troubling about the plot were the holes large enough to drive a body-carrying van through. The novel’s antagonists made a series of bonehead decisions that could only lead to their discovery and ultimate downfall. In every major particular, it was their stupidity that tripped them up, not the protagonists’ brilliance.
Other elements, like the terrorist attacks on Edinburgh and the Nazi angle, added color but little interest. Human beings are perfectly capable of doing terrible things to each other without them having to be Nazis. The terrorism came in two flavors: the run-of-the-mill Islamic terrorism that we’ve come to know and love, plus evil right-wing Christian terrorism, the new taste treat served up fresh for this book. I’m not sure why it was added except to claim a fictional equivalence between the two groups, despite that at the end of the book we learn the dark truth behind the plague of terrorism, er, plaguing Edinburgh.
A great strength of the book was the vivid descriptions of Edinburgh. Jarvis really put you right in the city, making it its own character.
Were there scares? Not so much. Tension? A little, but you’ll have to turn your mind off if you want to get the full effect. You won’t lose yourself in Dark Equinox, but you will be entertained.
The writing was fine, though occasionally dipped more into telling us things rather than showing us. A prime example: “Fifty-five years old, bald and overweight, Carnegie was a typical old-school copper, divorced and world-weary.” I’d rather the writer showed us these qualities rather than simply telling us about them. More adjectives don’t always make a scene more descriptive, and if you limit your characters to recognizable tropes, they become interchangeable and uninteresting.
Touted as being the first in the “Iona Kyle Series,” there’s actually not very much of Iona Kyle in it compared to the other characters. Multiple protagonists don’t have to be a problem in a novel, but marketing sets expectations, and when they’re not fulfilled, we’re left with a feeling of something missing. Iona is herself a somewhat mysterious, unknowable figure, doing good occult works to make up for a terrible past, but she lacks the depth that the other main characters possessed: Phil and Angie. Phil was the true star of the novel, a conflicted figure who does a series of bad things for what he thinks are good reasons. Angie was stolid, dependable, and interesting more for what she experienced through the story than who she was. Other side characters were brought in and out to heighten the tension, with mixed results.
The plot moved forward at an even pace, moving from Phil to Angie to occasional bad guys to even more occasional Iona Kyle. Head-hopping from the limited omniscient perspective was somewhat jarring in some of the chapters. What was most troubling about the plot were the holes large enough to drive a body-carrying van through. The novel’s antagonists made a series of bonehead decisions that could only lead to their discovery and ultimate downfall. In every major particular, it was their stupidity that tripped them up, not the protagonists’ brilliance.
Other elements, like the terrorist attacks on Edinburgh and the Nazi angle, added color but little interest. Human beings are perfectly capable of doing terrible things to each other without them having to be Nazis. The terrorism came in two flavors: the run-of-the-mill Islamic terrorism that we’ve come to know and love, plus evil right-wing Christian terrorism, the new taste treat served up fresh for this book. I’m not sure why it was added except to claim a fictional equivalence between the two groups, despite that at the end of the book we learn the dark truth behind the plague of terrorism, er, plaguing Edinburgh.
A great strength of the book was the vivid descriptions of Edinburgh. Jarvis really put you right in the city, making it its own character.
Were there scares? Not so much. Tension? A little, but you’ll have to turn your mind off if you want to get the full effect. You won’t lose yourself in Dark Equinox, but you will be entertained.
October 4, 2013
Decided to read the first of a series of novels after following the author on twitter. Sisterhood is one of the most exciting novels i have read so far this year. The author had me gripped from the first page and with his descriptive style i could almost taste the atmosphere of Edinburgh.
I stayed up till 2am as i couldn't sleep till i had read the last page....a must read for anyone with a fascination for crime and the occult.
Cant wait to read the next one... And downloading it as we speak
Many thanks for a wondrous read. :-)
I stayed up till 2am as i couldn't sleep till i had read the last page....a must read for anyone with a fascination for crime and the occult.
Cant wait to read the next one... And downloading it as we speak
Many thanks for a wondrous read. :-)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews