The Girl From Dark Dakota

Bryan Devore’s The Girl from Dark Dakota is a delightfully dark paranormal suspense mystery. We, along with the major characters, are drawn into the story of Annabel and Rubin, victims of a Halloween murder-suicide. Nearly a year has passed and, as the anniversary draws nigh, Rachel, a psychic sensitive, and her group of ghost hunter friends carry out a clandestine stakeout at the hospital where Annabel drew her final breath. Here, they stumble across Jason, an accountant called in to conduct an audit. He doesn’t want to believe, but ends up neck deep in the paranormal despite himself. The final players are Dr. Graves, a hopeful skeptic, and Madam Bovell, a disgraced medium. Pulled together, at this time and in this place, each has lessons of faith and trust to learn as they unravel the truth behind Annabel’s death.

I was immediately drawn in! I enjoy the paranormal, and I am always up for a good mystery. I liked the argument made toward the end, that Lucifer is how he is because there are things God wants done but doesn’t want to be responsible for doing. It made me think of Loki and Odin. Also, the notion that, in terms of the Christian religion, the reason there is evil in the world is because that’s what God wants because he wants free will in the world. I’ve always been of the mind that that’s pretty messed up. But then, I’m a pagan, and Rokkatru to boot. I know the true value of the Trickster and of the Destroyer, who is, by virtue of destroying, also a consummate Creator. That’s not quite how the message was intended here though, and other parts of the story were a bit heavy on Lucifer as the Corrupter.

One point did kick me out of the story. A character fell asleep for twenty minutes and had a nightmare, but said that was impossible because REM sleep is part of deep sleep, occurring ninety minutes into a sleep cycle. REM sleep is the deepest, or fourth level, of sleep, but it is very different from what is properly called “deep sleep,” and while *most* dreaming, including nightmares, occurs during REM, that’s not always so, and I’ve had plenty of vivid dreams/nightmares during fifteen- to thirty-minute catnaps. Myriad factors play into this, and we know relatively little about sleep in truth.

This book is perfect for fans of Stephen King and Dean Koontz and shows such as Supernatural, The X-Files, and Dark.