Santa Claus is coming to town in "The Saint"

Santa Claus is coming to town in "The Saint"

Christmas has been hijacked by the goblins. In Melanie Jackson's "The Saint," ($6.99, Dorchester Publishing Co. Inc.) we learn the truth about one of our most revered holidays. Just when humankind in America "had embraced the idea of a season of generosity and joyousness of spirit," the disaster, or rather, the goblins struck.

Kris Kringle had been sent by Gaia -- God, Goddess, Allfather, Allmother -- to bring a message of peace and love to mankind. And for the last 10,000 years, Kris has done just that. At least he had until a 160 years ago when became a victim of the goblins.

It seems Kris was doing too good a job turning man from death and destruction. So the goblins and the Unseelie queen plotted to put an end to his message of peace and love.

However, they couldn't risk killing Kris, Gaia would just reincarnate him, so they kidnapped him, fed him a drug that scrambled his brain so completely he had total amnesia and dumped him, get this, in the North Pole.

And while Santa was out of commission, the goblins turned Christmas into a commercial nightmare and Santa into a jolly, fat old elf. Kris' message was lost.

And, for better than a century, so did Kris. Wandering among the polar bears, Kris hears thousands of voices in his head as people, mostly children, pray to him for help. He just has no idea why or how to help them.

But now Kris' nephew, Jack Frost, has found him and Santa is coming back to town. Kris' memory, however, is still somewhat sketchy and that could be a problem. You see, Gaia didn't just pick any old fey to carry her message to humans. She picked the most powerful death fey that ever was.

Though Kris renounced his abilities as a death fey, he still has them, so hopefully he will remember Gaia's command of "Thou shalt not kill" and his feelings of peace and goodwill. Because if Kris ever calls up Death, well let's just say, he has 10,000 years of uncollected deaths due from Kris Kringle.


Kris has a plan to reclaim Christmas. But first he needs biographer Adora Navarra on board to tell his life story. He admires her work and, if she can suspend her disbelief long enough, he thinks she's the best one to tell his story.

As for Adora, let's just say while Kris has had a bad century and a half, Adora's life hasn't exactly been a picnic. But she needs this job and there's just something about Kris ...

But don't forget the goblins. They've been under the yoke of man long enough and they're just itching for a fight.

I highly recommend "The Saint." It my first Wildside Romance by Melanie Jackson, but it won't be my last.

Danger lurks under a "Crescent Moon" in Lori Handeland's latest

Danger lurks under a "Crescent Moon" in Lori Handeland's latest

Though, she's never believed in magic, cryptozoologist Diana Malone's husband, Simon, did. So Diana made her dying husband a promise: To prove that mythical creatures, any mythical creature, exists.

In Lori Handeland's "Crescent Moon" ($6.99, St. Martin's Paperbacks), Diana might get her chance to do just that.

Unemployed again, not many universities want to hire cryptozoologists who look for mythical creatures, Diana jumps at the chance to work for Frank Tallient. Tallient wants Diana to travel to Louisiana and investigate wolf sightings and several deaths in the swamps.

Tallient tells Diana there have been sightings in and around New Orleans for the past two hundred years. But the disturbances only seem to occur around a particular phase of the moon: the crescent. Tallient wants Diana to trap what he suspects is a loup-garou, or werewolf, then give him a call.

Werewolves were Simon's speciality.

Once in Louisiana, Diana makes her base camp an old mansion at the edge of the swamp where the recent killings occurred. The mansion is owned by one Adam Ruelle who supposedly disappeared years ago. However, Diana has no trouble meeting the man.

Rumor has it that the Ruelle family was cursed years ago. Even though, she and Ruelle become quite, er, close,Diana has a feeling that Adam knows more about the killings and the wolf sightings than he's saying.

"Crescent Moon" is Handeland's fourth Nightcreature novel. My favorite is still her first one, "Dark Moon," where we're introduced to the Jager-Suchers, an organization who hunts down supernatural creatures. "Crescent Moon" starts off strong, but kind of bogs down in the middle before picking back up in the end, so while it's not the best Nightcreature novel, it's still worth a read.

"Jude's Law" not up to Lori Foster's usual standard

Former bad-boy actor Jude Jamison finds himself disenchanted with Hollywood and making a home for himself in way in Stillbrook, Ohio, in "Jude's Law" by Lori Foster ($6.99, Zebra Books).

However, he still has his money and fame and offers pouring in from Hollywood, but for the moment Jude's only got one interest and that's gallery owner May Price.

Jude's crazy about May, but she just doesn't seem to get the message. Even when Jude spells it out for her, May thinks he's kidding around. Besides, she has other things on her mind.

Like her family from hell: a supercritical mother who likes to self-medicate, a father who's so busy chasing other women that he could care less what goes on at home and her drunken sot of a brother who's just involved May in a murderous plot.

Well, it's not murder yet. Tim Price has been "persuaded" by a couple of goons that if he wants their boss to forget the huge gambling debt he owes, he'll do the boss a favor and kill Jude Jamison. Of course, Tim goes running to May and because Tim is insistent that she not go to the police, May goes to Jude to warn him that someone wants him dead.

The plot of "Jude's Law" is kind of shaky and seems forced. Of course, even a "bad" Lori Foster novel is better than most, but it was definitely lacking her usual sparkle. The subplot involving May's best friend Ashley is more interesting than the main story.

If you haven't read a Foster book, I'd suggest starting with "Say No to Joe?," an excellent example of her storytelling skills.

Paranormal thriller "Shadow Touch" spellbinding

What would you do if you had the ability to heal, the mind and the body, with just a touch? Elena Baxter can do just that. Raised by her grandfather who taught her to keep her abilities secret, Elena volunteers at the Milwaukee Children's Hospital. There, she uses her gifts to heal.

What would you do if, by mere touch, you could "read" the memories of, not just people, but the very walls and floors that surround you? Russian emigre Artur Loginov can. Artur uses his abilities in the employ of Dirk & Steele, an organization dedicated to helping others by using the secret abilities of their unusually gifted employees.

But someone knows the secrets of both Elena and Artur. Someone who uses the services of a serial killer. Elena is abducted right from the hospital; Artur is taken from his home.

Meeting for the first time at the facility where they have been taken to be studied and experimented upon, Elena and Artur form an instant connection. Somehow, they must survive their captivity and escape, taking with them the other prisoners at the facility.

"Shadow Touch by Marjorie M. Liu ($6.99, Dorchester Publishing Co. Inc.) is the second book in the Dirk & Steele series. A fitting follow to "Tiger Eye," it's a must-read for fans of paranormal fiction.