Product Description
A VILLAIN’S REQUEST
In 1946, soon-to-be-executed Nazi General Hermann Goering asks young Soul Identity overseer Archibald Morgan to take his looted gold and deposit it in a soul line collection, there to await his soul’s rebirth.
A GRIM RESISTANCE
Flora, a seventeen-year-old Gypsy girl whose father died in the Dachau concentration camp, is sure that Goering stole the gold. She struggles to persuade Morgan to reject the Nazi’s deposit, but Morgan … More >>
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I really enjoyed this book. It is an apt sequel to Soul Identity. The characters have grown and gotten deeper as their new adventure plays out. The Kindle edition is formatted perfectly, combining with the author’s excellent research and prose to make this an easy reading book. The story flows well, the dialog is smooth and believable.
I am looking forward to more adventures for these characters!
This book is recommended for fans of science fiction, historical fiction, and mystery/thriller fans.
Rating: 4 / 5
I totally enjoyed this 2nd book in the “Soul” line. The first in the series was terrific, and I was pleasantly surprised to be equally satisfied with “Soul Intent”. I can’t wait for the next in the series!
Rating: 5 / 5
I recommend the original effort Soul Identity. The key to that plot is clever, original and the author fleshes out some nice characters. This book, Soul Intent, attempts to keep the ride going, further leveraging that plot and those characters without adding anything particularly clever–it’s all just a little too convenient and the way the book presents history and then has a current character retell the story often feels a bit slow and awkward.
Rating: 2 / 5
Imagine, if you will, that after your death your soul will not go to some infinite beyond, but instead return here, to Earth, in the form of someone else. If that person could find you, honor your memory in the life that’s been passed from you to them, what would you leave that person? What might the person you were before this life have left for you? Dennis Batchelder has come up with a tantalizing new series of mystery novels based around this idea, and the result is a fun and inventive ride through history with a unique twist on the concept of posterity.
“Soul Intent” is the first of the Soul Identity novels, a series of books about a company that makes a special practice of identifying those who seem to have been born with the same soul signature of someone who has just died. Let me explain. By taking specialized photographs of a person’s retinas and then overlaying those photos the resulting image is the mark of someone’s soul identity. They are as unique as fingerprints to those who are living, but recycled at the very moment that someone has passed away. This is enough proof of reincarnation for a company called Soul Identity to store time capsules, much like safe deposit boxes at a bank, for further generations to open once they’ve been identified with the same soul signature.
The first of these novels, “Soul Intent”, establishes this premise effectively and transitions quickly into this first Soul Identity plot wherein the head of the security department, Scott, is called in to solve the mysterious disappearance of Nazi gold which was being held in the Soul Identity’s bank. What follows is a fast paced race through time, much in the spirit of Dan Brown’s latest set of thrillers (albeit, with a bit of an esoteric touch).
“Soul Intent” is more focused on serving up a good time rather than debating on the spirituality of its premise. This might be something of an issue for readers, since the idea itself is strong enough to conjure such questions. At its core, it’s more about generational heritage than about reincarnation. Soul Identity’s current executive overseer has reached his golden years, having run the company through WWII where he met a Gypsy known as Madame Flora, and their adventures following the war lead to questions that their children’s children must solve. As such, much of the mystery’s clues come in the form of stories passed down either orally or through journals or hidden symbols.
In the nature of these types of thrillers, chapters and paragraphs are short and quick winded, information comes fast with the broader points restated for those who missed it the first time around, and the stakes are steadily risen in anticipation of its climactic reveal. It’s clear that Batchelder has done his homework for this first outing, as the formula is followed nearly to a fault. If you’re familiar with such mystery thrillers it will be easy to tell which twists will come where before you get to them. I’d also like to point out here that Dan Brown and James Patterson have similar problems, but they each have a particular unique writing pattern which Batchelder lacks. Brown’s work is loaded with fun puzzles and familiar sights, while Patterson’s comes with a brazen sense of sardonic humor that many readers find charming. Time will tell if Betchelder’s work strikes a similar chord with readers. As for myself, I found it to be an aspiring work that is as noble a first effort as the best of thriller writers. While the more exciting half of the novel takes place in Nuremburg in 1946, following Flora and Morgan rather than the book’s central character, Scott., it’s clear that Scott’s story is only an encasement for the historical narrative. (Think of Sam Beckett’s journey through time in “Quantum Leap”.)
With frantic pacing, clever crime solving, and an intriguing premise, “Soul Intent” is a daring start for a series with long running potential. It’s a great story that stresses the importance of reaching across time to hold onto the memories of our shared history, and learn the lessons of our forefathers. Scott demonstrates this keenly when he opens the box to his own soul line to find simply a note that says “don’t drink the water in White Cliffs”.
Rating: 4 / 5
I was fortunate enough to win a copy of this book and I liked it a lot. I would give it 6 stars!! It has a little bit of everything in it, little bit of science fiction, action & adventure, historical noel, and romance. I literally could not put this book down & highly recommend it to all.
Rating: 5 / 5