'Despite the grief of losing her parents in the Great Quake, Delia Martin has been blessed with money, privilege, and all the trappings of happiness that a young woman could ever want. In spite of this, there is a deep sadness that surrounds Delia, for she has been gifted (or some would say cursed) with the ability to peer across to the other side. Since childhood, her constant companions have been ghosts. She used her powers and the help of those ghosts to defeat a twisted serial killer terrorizing her beloved San Francisco. Now it's 1917--the threshold of a modern age--and Delia lives a peaceful life with police captain Gabe Ryan.
That peace shatters when a strange young girl starts haunting their lives and threatening Gabe. Delia tries to discover what this ghost wants as she becomes entangled in the mystery surrounding a charismatic evangelist who preaches pacifism and an end to war. But as young people begin to disappear, and audiences display a loyalty and fervor not attributable to simple persuasion, that message of peace reveals a hidden dark side.
As Delia discovers the truth, she faces a choice--take a terrible risk to save her city or chance losing everything.'
My thoughts:
I enjoyed the first book in this series Delia's Shadow so much that I was overly excited to get my hands on the newest addition to the series. Delia's Shadow was one of my favorite reads last year and I had high hopes for this one. I will state early on in this review, that I thought that this book wasn't as good as the first one. I still enjoyed this one, but it just lacked the punch that the first book had. Delia is once again drawn to ghosts and to helping her husband solving murder mysteries. She cannot help it when a ghost of a young girl threatens her and her husband, but to get involved. Nevertheless, Delia has a great band of friends that assist her and keep her safe. But is one truly safe from ghosts and demons and such dark entities?
Gabe has a new murder mystery on his hands and it all leads back to a pacifist that has been holding rallies in San Francisco. However, when crossed this lady is a force to be reckoned with. She is cunning, smart and not afraid to do harm to make sure that things go her way. Gabe is trying to bring her down, however, she always seems to have the upper hand. Delia and her friend, Isadora, spend a lot of time trying to assist Gabe but they are taking the paranormal route. They both use their finely tuned senses to discover ghosts and demons and learn just how deep and dark evil really is.
There was one incidence in this book where something happens, but then the author never really cleared it up. I am wondering if that was intentional or not. It might play out in the future in this series, but I am still curious as to what happened and why it was never concluded. This was a good read, but I highly recommend reading the first book in this series as there is a lot of back story that the author decides to not cover. I feel that if you read this book first, that you might be a little confused as to the characters and their pasts. Overall, an enjoyable read, but not as good as the first one.
Overall Rating: 3.5
Title: A Barricade in Hell
Author: Jaime Lee Moyer
Series: Delia's Shadow #2
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: June 3, 2014
Pages: 336
Genre: Historical Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was selected from the library by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.