Tortured Spirits

August 27, 2012
The fourth installment in Lambersonâs Jake Helman Files (after 2011âs Cosmic Forces) is an action-packed blend of hard-boiled urban fantasy and pulpy horror. Only one person in the world can help intrepid New York City PI Helman change his cop friend Edgar Hopkins back into human form: a white witch named Miriam Du Pre. Before she agrees to attempt the transformation, Helman must free her husband, a political prisoner, from a Caribbean island ruled by a drug-lord dictator with an army of zombies at his beck and call. Series fans will applaud the audacious moves in this high-octane installment, but the explicit and at times protracted descriptions of crude sex (âJake felt hot membrane engulfing himâ) and gory conflicts with the walking dead will make readers grimace for all of the wrong reasons.