‘Are you scared of me?’ I asked.
‘Oddly enough, no. Should I be?’
‘No. Well, not unless I lose my temper, but I’m careful about hanging on to it.’
With the swinging Sixties staggering, shamefaced and flustered, into the slightly staider Seventies, Stella’s life isn’t running half as smoothly as she’d like. As an ordinary person, who happens to have some extraordinary psychic abilities, it’s frustrating to find that even something as simple as holding down a job throws up unexpected hurdles. Of course – and she’s the first to admit – she’d be a lot better off if she could ditch the conviction that she always knows best. This shortcoming, combined with a chronic inability to keep her mouth shut and her nose out of other people’s business, has led her off the straight and narrow more than once.
But Stella’s perfectly clear how things are going to be from now on. It’s not she can’t handle sticky situations, she can, she just doesn’t want to – violence really isn’t her thing. Forward planning includes setting herself up in a successful business, sticking like glue to normal, squashing an over-active conscience and steering clear of anything remotely risky or unpleasant. Unfortunately, the best laid plans often lead to the darkest places…
Even Stranger is a darker tale of fantastic occurrences that will appeal to fans of authors such as Stephen King, and Marilyn’s first novel, Relatively Strange.
My Review: Even Stranger is the sequel to Relatively Strange and in my opinion is Even Better! We meet Stella 7 years on from where we left her and she’s trying to build a business and live a “normal” life. With the author’s deadpan humour and observational wit, I read this book with a huge smile on my face eagerly following Stella through her various exploits. A truly fabulous series which I hope has at least one more book to come as I need to know what happens next. 5 stars.
About the Author: Marilyn was a regular feature and fiction writer for national magazines when her children were small. She set up her first business selling toys, books and party goods from home, before opening first one shop then another.
When she sold the shops, she moved into the world of travel, focusing on accommodation in New England, USA. Her advisory, planning and booking service flourished and she concurrently launched a publishing company, producing an annual, full-colour accommodation guide. In 2007 she set up a copywriting consultancy, Create Communication to help businesses shape their messages to optimum effect. She’s the author of the Little Black Business Book series.
She’s been married to her very patient husband for more years than he deserves and they have two children, five grandchildren and, somewhat to their surprise, several grand-dogs. She likes nothing more than hearing from her readers, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
www.marilynmessik.co.uk ~ www.createcommunication.co.uk
