Negative Positive
Title: Mumbo Jumbo
Review: I have read the first two books in this series, and I am not up to read the rest. Sonny Baca, the supposed detective hero, is so incompetent, and the confrontations he has with his adversaries so contrived, that it is juvenile. Baca is so constantly stumbling into traps, that the reader is saying "Sonny, don't go in there" two pages before he runs head long into another trap. After a while it become silly. The way Sonny escapes from the traps is even sillier. And the exotic spiritualism is never explained in a way that makes any sense. After a while it is so much Mumbo Jumbo. The shame of the matter is that Anaya is a prose master, and the images he conveys are effective. The problem is the stories are simply lacking any believability.If you want southwestern mysticism and great story telling, by a truely talented writer, try The Shaman Sings, and the other books by James Doss.
Is the review positive or negative? 