By Chuck Wendig

Saga Press, out now

Miriam is on the trail of a woman she believes may be able to cure her of her “gift”…

It’s been a long time since I last read a story featuring Chuck Wendig’s heroine, Miriam Black, who only needs to touch you to know the way you’re going to die. I had the pleasure of copyediting the third (in its original edition) and at the time, one of my notes was that I really wanted to know what happened next – always a mark of a good book. It’s been over four years (longer than it needed to be, as the books don’t have a UK publisher at present) and the answer to my question doesn’t disappoint.

In the period between Cormorant and Thunderbird, Wendig has penned many hundreds of thousands of words, including his Star Wars trilogy, and his storytelling skills have been honed further. There really isn’t a word wasted in this sometimes bleak tome, as Miriam tries to find the mysterious Mary Scissors – and then, in the finding, discovers something potentially devastating. There are others out there who have powers and they have some radical ideas about how to use them…

As always with this series, amid the action and the nastiness to be found in the most mundane of lives, there’s some dark humour, and now there’s also the sense that things are starting to come to a head. Luckily book 5 – The Raptor and the Wren – has just been published!

Verdict: A novel that’s as profane and engaging as its heroine – a pleasure to get reacquainted with Miriam Black. 8/10

Paul Simpson