Heart of Evil: Book 2 in Krewe of Hunters series

4 Stars... The second book in the "Krewe Hunters" series focuses on Jake Mallory who, along with his team, is called in to investigate a missing persons case causing him to be reunited with his soulmate, Ashley Donegal... The case quickly turns to a murder investigation, seeped in Civil War history, and ghostly presences begin to entwine themselves within this haunting mystery... Heather Graham provides a strong historical foundation within which she creates a twisting, turning "who done it" case with a supernatural twist... I enjoyed this read and found myself attempting to solve the case (not completely successful I might add) following the clues both human and ghostly... I am beginning to connect more with the characters and their abilities as well; enjoying their interactions and developing relationships... There were some grammatical pieces that needed addressing and at times the character speaking became slightly confusing, but overall it was an enjoyable and entertaining read:)

Set in modern times, Heart of Evil is a paranormal murder mystery that stretches back to the Civil War. Set at Donegal Plantation, Ashley Donegal is trying to make ends meet and keep the plantation alive by converting it to a bed and breakfast and having an annual Civil War reenactment. During the reenactment, the actor playing the role of her ancestor Marshall Donegal is killed in a gruesome manner. A paranormal investigation team that includes her old flame, Jake Mallory, is brought in to investigate. Also helping to investigate are the ghosts of Marshall Donegal and his wife. The murder turns out to be a series of murders all centering around what happened over 150 years earlier.

I liked how this novel incorporated historical events, both with the Civil War reenactment, and how the events of the past tied in to the present day murders. It was cleverly done with a supernatural component mixed into it. As for the mystery aspect, the unveiling of the killer surprised me yet remained logical and well thought out. I was less impressed with the romance element between Ashley and Jake, which seemed generic and didn’t do too much to move me. The Krewe of Hunters team was interesting, and I thought more could be done with this cast of characters. All in all, this was a fun read that I would recommend.

Carl Alves – author of Conjesero

Compared to book one, I liked the story better in this book, but I liked the characters better in the first one. The characters here came across as rather flat.

I also had an issue (one of those must suspend disbelief kinds of things) with the fact that Jake, who previously was pretty much just a musician that also apparently helped to find people (unless I’m mistaken on that aspect), now is a full fledged FBI agent that knows all about protocols, procedure and apparently the knowledge to give a behavioral analysis of bad guys. It was all a little too pat for my liking. Even more so when his apparent finding ability seems to have been forgotten. It was also hugely coincidental that Ashley can also see and talk to ghosts.

Ashley’s character was a tad on the annoying side and a bit flip-floppy for my tastes. I really didn’t like her hypocritical attitude and how she was with Jake early on, then just dropped all issues as if they were nothing and everything is all hunky dory in romance land with the two of them.

Another, more minor, irritant was an issue with names getting switched. There were several places where it was obvious the character in question was one person, but the name used was another. Should have been Jackson, but said Jake instead. Same with Angela and Ashley. That is one huge downside to using similar character names in a book. If you are going to do that, you had better be on your toes during the editing process to make sure that gets caught because a mistake like that can completely yank a reader right out of the story, depending on how important the scenario is.

I did really like the non-romance part of this story, though. There are still aspects that are just a little too perfect and coincidental to make this a really good story and is what keeps in on the just good level, but it was good. It kept me interested and I didn’t get bored with the plot.

5 Thousand Gold Stars For This Great Series. A series that has nothing bad in the plot or storyline but its really for older teens to adults. See what hatred in a sick mind dose to a family and friends that are around. The Civil War is over a long time ago ,but hatred still lives in some family's that had love ones die in the war. And this is a story about several family that fought in the battle and how the live ancestors of today are make an educational working history of the past.

Ashley and her Grampa Frazier are the last living Donegals on Donegal Plantation. Donegal Plantation is one of the oldest in Louisiana. Every year the Donegals host a Civil War reenactment on the plantation. This year something is terribly awry. Ashley is having strange dreams and they lead her to discover a dead body staged to appear just as her ancestor Marshall Donegal died all those years ago. Unfortunately, the death doesn't stop there.

Jake Mallory is a member of a special team within the FBI that deals with the supernatural. Jake grew up with Ashley but when he told her of his special gift she ran from him. All these years later and the thought of Ashley still evokes emotion. When his team is tasked with researching the Donegal Plantation's ghost stories in effort to find the killer Jake and Ashley are thrown together once again. Will she be more receptive to Jake's special abilities now that it seems she may have one of her own? Can the Krewe of Hunters find the killer before Ashley becomes the next victim?

Heart of Evil is a haunting romance wrapped in mystery. Eternal love drives this beautiful romance. I thoroughly enjoyed Jake and Ashley as well as the story of Donegal Plantation. I would have liked a bit more from the rest of the Krewe. Heart of Evil was a bit slow to start for me. I was interested but it didn't totally hold my attention until Jake and Ashley actually shared some page time. The history within this story is intriguing and intense. Since I'm a fan of history and ghost stories I enjoyed Heart of Evil. Heart of Evil definitely left me guessing until the end!

Miranda
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

BEYOND THE THINGS THAT SCIENCE CAN EXPLAIN LURKS ANOTHER WORLD. ONE STEEPED IN DANGER...

Emerging from the bayou like an apparition, Donegal Plantation is known for its unsurpassed dining, captivating atmosphere, haunting legends...and now a corpse swinging from the marble angel that marks its cemetery's most majestic vault. A corpse discovered in nearly the same situation as that of Marshall Donegal, the patriarch killed in a skirmish just before the Civil War.

Desperate for help traditional criminologists could never provide, plantation heiress Ashley Donegal turns to an elite team of paranormal investigators who blend hard forensics with rare--often inexplicable--intuition. Among the "Krewe of Hunters" is an old flame, Jake Mallory, a gifted musician with talent stretching far beyond the realm of the physical, and a few dark ghosts of his own.

The evil the team unveils has the power to shake the plantation to its very core. Jake and Ashley are forced to risk everything to unravel secrets that will not stay buried--even in death...

Donegal Plantation is known for it's historic beauty, fabulous dinning, and it's re-enactment of skirmish that took place there right at the start of the civil war.
Now it is know for the body hanging from the Angel statue located in the family cemetary.
Perhaps the ghost of the plantation did it? Jackson Crowe and the Krewe are called in. They are sure there are spirits roaming the plantation but doubt they had a hand in the murder.
Ashley Donegal and Jake have a past that ended when she found he spoke to ghost.Now she isn't so sure as she has her own ghost to talk too.
Can they find the killer before any more fall victimn? Can she and Jake save their love and help mend a love that has survived through the ages?

This is the 2nd in the Krewe series and was an excellent read.Murder, ghostly haunts and a love that stretched through time and after all isn't that what we all would like?

I don't really expect much from romance books. This isn't because I don't think that there can be some fantastic books in the genre (there's some amazing stuff out there), but because the main goal of romance & most fiction isn't to be some amazingly deep read. Their goal is to entertain & only to entertain, which I respect. Unfortunately you sometimes get things that fall short of even that modest goal, which is what happened here with this book.

Normally I'd have a huge paragraph of great things to say about an Adam Harrison related book, but this just isn't the case with this book. While I do like the characters & at times there's some good chemistry, there just wasn't a lot that really stood out here until the ending. I did like the pacing towards the end & it does have a nice little scene at the end as well as some great recipes.

It's just that most of the book felt forced & predictable. Some of the background characters just blurred into one big lump because there wasn't anything to really make them stand out or be exemplary from the rest of the cast. It was also fairly easy to predict the killer because there were only a few people who were described well enough to be the killer & one of those I was able to eliminate because *minor spoiler* one of the team members showed an interest in him *end spoiler*. Even the love scenes didn't really do much to rescue the book because more often than not the chemistry just wasn't present enough to really loop me in like previous books have.

As far as entertainment value goes, I can't muster more than 2 stars for this book. The Heather Graham fangirl in me keeps nagging me to raise the star rating to at least 3 stars, but it's that same fangirl who says "well... I've read a lot better, especially in the AH line of books".

Read this at the library. I wouldn't bother purchasing it unless you absolutely have the urge to keep your collection current.

2/5 stars

(ARC provided by Netgalley)

From my book review blog, [...]:

Heather Graham is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. If you love mystical mysteries, then "Heart of Evil" is for you.

Heather manages to take us to Donegal Plantation in both form and fiction. You feel as if you are there, walking the grounds with the characters, that it in and of itself becomes a live character. The people Heather creates are fully human, that is, they have foibles just as you and I do yet are capable of carrying out their duties. The theme that Heather uses is widely seen in this effort, a ghost controlling humans, taking advantage of a decades (century's?) old vendetta from one family against another. Even though we've seen this in the trilogy before, it's still refreshing to see.

Very fun and enjoyable story. A murder mystery with ties back to the civil war, some paranormal activity in the form of a ghost, a romance and all with the same cast of characters as the first book!

I look forward to the next books and getting to know others on the crew as well as I now know Jake, Jackson and Angela! Especially Whitney!

I generally love Heather Graham's books and would buy anything with her name on it. But Heart of Evil is lacking compared to her other books. Lots of atmosphere, possible bad guys, and mystery but the characters are flat. I felt as though this book started in the middle of the story, you don't know why the main 2 characters are drawn to each other and you don't feel any progression in their relationship.

Others have commented that this is book 2 in the series and you need book 1 to understand all the in's and out's -- for me that's a publising problem. Phantom Evil (book 1) is only out in Hardback and Heart of Evil (book 2)is already out in Mass Market paperback. They should've stuck with one format and kept the books in order either hardback/paperback that way. Mixing the mediums doesn't work for people like me who only buy paperbacks. Wait til all are in one format and then read them in order.

Otherwise, stick with the Ghost Shadow/Night/Moon or Deadly Night/Vision/Gift series or any of the better rated singles like The Vision, Haunted, or Ghost Walk.

Civil War buffs love the Donegal Plantation in the Louisiana Bayou. Reenactments further enhance the site as a popular attraction. However, rumors abound that Donegal Planation is also home to ghosts, which increase the high regard by people wanting to come to the estate.

During an enactment, actor Charles Osgood goes missing. The search for him fails to find him so Plantation manager Ashley Donegal informs parish police officer Drew Montague who scorns her for her concern. The next day Ashley finds Charles' murdered body reenacting a Civil War scene. Upset with the death and fearing more to follow Ashley vows to prevent any more killings. Her late ancestor provides her with clues. Also helping her solve the case is her ex-lover, Jake Mallory and his paranormal forensics team including Jackson Crow as each wonders if the killer is living or otherwise.

The latest Krewe of Hunters (see Phantom Evil) is a dark haunting paranormal thriller that grips the audience once the large cast is set. The story line is atmospherically spooky as only Heather Graham consistently does in the Bayou. The war between the dead and their descendants grips the enthralled readers as Heart of Evil makes for a taut otherworldly investigative mystery with a secondary romantic subplot enhancing the superb supernatural suspense.

Harriet Klausner

I love to read Heather Graham's books because you are pulled into them and feel like you are there living the book. You never see the twist coming till it hits and then you say, "like WOW - I never saw that coming!" Heather is by far my favorite author because of her story lines, the details, and how well she pulls the story together. I have bought all her books and anxiously await the new ones!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!

Good story, nice summer read. Definitely another good book in this series. However, the characters lack depth. It would have been nice to have a little more background on the protagonists of this story. Overall, quick read and entertaining.

A below average attempt, in my opinion. The characters weren't very interesting or fleshed out, the plot was "meh", and the story telling was just so-so. I certainly won't be recommending it. If you're a fan of Heather Graham's work, maybe this is one you just want to check-out from the library. Personally, I was so disappointed by this book that I won't be reading any thing else by her.

Heather Graham does her usual outstanding job; particularly happy this triology came out so quickly, one right after the other; suspense is one thing; waiting is another. Love the series and all have a 5-star rating in my book!

This story of history, ghosts, and love reunited drew me in quickly and kept my attention throughout. There is nothing like a serial killer doing a vengeful ghost's bidding to bring back together two people who were separated because of their opposing views on the existence of such paranormal entities. How is that for an original plotline?
The characters were strong, each with their own unique personalities, including the unnamed killer. I really like it when you get brief glimpses into the killer's demented thoughts in these types of novels. I think it takes the suspense up a notch. The dialogue of all of the characters was expertly written, enhancing each character in manner of speech and tone. Graham is one of the best characterization authors I have ever read. Even the secondary characters, including the ghostly ones, were all very well developed.
Of course, I can't talk about the characters without mentioning the steamy, romantic plotline. I am a sucker for lovers-torn-apart being forced back together again. In this one, as opposed to most, the two past lovers didn't hate each other. Yet, despite the fact they were willing, so much stood in their way of getting back together again. I found myself really rooting for Jack and Ashley.
The plot while well constructed and suspenseful, took a few scary turns with ghosts to help the investigation along. I loved how the paranormal element helped even when the main character resisted, a nice opposition to the ghost who had a human killing for him.
The setting came through beautifully through rich descriptions of the plantation and cemetery along with the rich history of the place. The setting of a civil war reenactment was very clever especially when you have modern day people playing the ghosts walking among them. Again, the story was so nicely layered, giving it a full plot. I highly recommend this novel, even if you haven't read the first in the series like me. It has a little something for everyone: history buffs, romance addicts, suspense/mystery readers, etc.

Not too complicated but well written. A good book in the supernatural genre, and it lightened and brightened up my reading list (came to this book from a series of heavy hitting, thought inducing saga-types books).