The Vigilante Witch Hunter by Gary Turcotte

In Vigilante Witch Hunter, the sequel to Memories of a Fortune Teller, Melissa has inherited her Mother's fortune-teller abilities. Her friend, Stephen hunts down evil-doers and does away with them based on tips from Melissa. She soon meets his stock broker, a wonderful man named Richard. It doesn't take long for her to discover that he too is a fortune teller who inherited his gift from his father. Throw in some mobsters, a marriage, a few deaths and you have pretty much have the whole story of this latest book by Gary Turcotte.

This book didn't really work for me. It was billed as a thriller, but it didn't read like that. I did appreciate the funny bits. Turcotte has a good sense of humour. The scene where he has his fortune told was clever and cute. However, he didn't convince me with this story. The conversations seemed forced and contrived, rather than flowing and natural. The wedding scene was too over the top for me.

Turcotte's descriptive passages were interesting, but at least one of them is physically impossible. He writes: The fluffy clouds rolled behind the sun. It seemed to look like the sun was putting a pillow behind his head readying himself for bed. Sounds nice (although a little corny), but how is this possible?

I found many spelling errors in the book. Normally I don't catch things like this, however, there were too many to be ignored. Errors are acceptable in an advanced reader's copy, but I believe this is a finished book. Not cool.

Having said all that, I did finish the book. That's more than I can say about other books I didn't care for. I kept hoping for it to get better. It didn't. This is the first book I've read by Gary Turcotte. I probably won't read any more. I'm sorry I couldn't find more positive things to say about the book. The premise was a good one and I really wanted to like it.

For more information about the book, check out the publisher's website Outskirt Press or a press release about the book.