Glimmer of the Other by Heather G. Harris

                                  Review by Katy Grant

                         Saving the Realms

 

 After her parents’ murders Jinx, Jessica Sharp at 18, became a private investigator, creating a job in which she could work for others but also to continue the search for answers about who had murdered her parents and why.  Her mother always told her to “fly under the radar” since there was something unique about herself that could cause problems. Jinx was a human lie detector. Recognizing instantly the truth or lie behind what people were saying, and sometimes if she pushed them a bit, she could get them to truthfully answer questions they’d had no intentions of answering. This she keeps to herself, however, not even telling the caring Mrs. Harding, the neighbor who lived next door Jinx’s whole life. Mrs. H. was a real help, she had comforted Jinx after her parents’ death, continued to watch out for her, even keeping Gato, Jinx’s extremely large Great Dane, when he couldn’t tag along on a job.

 A simple search for a missing young woman will open realms to Jinx, she never dreamed existed, much less could she believe that she belonged in them.  Joined in her search for Hester, Lady Sorrel’s granddaughter, is Zachary Stone, who appears as stoic as his name…at first. It was the stop at Rosie’s Café that Stone realized Jinx was what he called a ’truth seeker’.  Stone suddenly grabbed her wrist looking at her saying she’d been ’hidden’.  Which translated that even though she was aware of her powers, she had been totally ignorant of the world of magical beings of which she was one. There are three realms, but all her life Jinx had lived in the Common Realm where magical beings could mingle with humans without the humans seeing them as they really are. Stone, it seemed, was a high-ranking inspector in what he called the Connection, a governing body for the Realm of the Other.   Without much fuss, Stone stepped out behind Rosie’s introduced her to the Other. When they walked back into the café, it was like walking into the mirror and coming out on the other side into a strange world that looked the same, only some of the people she saw definitely weren’t human. Within this realm magical beings and humans still mixed but as an Other Jinx could now see the magical creatures as they truly were. And finding Hester just became a lot more complicated since the new boyfriend she had disappeared with was a vampyr. 

Characters, both human and magical beings inhabit the realms in which Jinx would travel with Stone. Each had its rules that must be followed while danger flowed hot and heavy in all three realms, emotions were high, and it was easy to offend without knowing it. At the center of it all was the dagger created for a very special purpose that at all costs must not fall into the wrong hands.

 This tale has some well-known legendary beasties, as well as some I had never seen in my decades of reading sci-fantasy literature. Heather Harris did a grand job of giving even the familiar beasties unique abilities and characteristics. Her realms may be hidden but the suspense and danger is on just about every page. I never knew what to expect when I turned the next page or who Stone and Jinx might encounter. The story is a living thing that moves in and out of the imagination and made me feel as if I were being drawn into a world filled with stories yet to be shared, characters that I grew to care about, but might disappear from the next page.

Dry humor sneaks in, in spots, British colloquialisms and wording I found easily understandable in the context of the telling. A tale which gives us implied romance, danger, death, hard won friendships, shifters, deamons, empathy’s, vampyrs, trolls, ogres, mer-people, dragons and more. I got so caught up in the series after turning the last page, I immediately picked up the rest of the books to follow the story to its “conclusion”? Written in the King’s English the reader be treated to familiar words with different spellings, British colloquial sayings, and humor.

I first started listening on audio and found myself lost in listening to the beautifully narrated book. Alyse Gibbs’ precise, clipped King’s English is spot on and very easy to follow. [I worked for over 15 years with a British lady who never gave in to American slang.] Likewise, I never seemed to have a problem distinguishing which character was speaking since Alyse Gibbs’ intonations and slight changes in range of her voice quickly alerted me that a different character was speaking. She is an excellent narrator. I highly recommend this tale in both Audible and eBook, I made good use of both.