5 out of 5
Book by J.W. Zarek
The DaVinci Code meets Alice in Wonderland in this action packed fantasy adventure.
After an accident that almost kills his best friend, twenty-two year old talented musician Boone Daniels is obligated to fill in for his friend at a New York gig. When the band’s contact, Professor Stone, is murdered right in front of him, Boone is thrown into the middle of a sinister plot. Professor Stone was the keeper of a rare Paganini piece capable of summoning the devil, and now someone wants to perform the music and destroy modern-day New York City. Determined to save NYC from this supernatural threat, Boone joins forces with gifted violinist Sapphire Anjou, the pair forced into a breathless and exhilarating race through Slavic mythology, secret societies, and time travel to capture the cursed melody.
Marek’s first novel in the Archivist series is an utterly unpredictable adventure, with surprising twists, imaginative scenery, wicked villains, and charismatic heroes. This is a lightning-fast read and there’s never a moment to stop and take a breather. The magical underworld that Boone finds himself in is different from the average fantasy novel, which not only works in making the setting interesting, but unanticipated and forever exciting. You never know what the next page is going to bring; the strange, the weird, the unsettling, capturing a reader’s attention from beginning to end.
Boone has both strengths and flaws that he must use and overcome to succeed in a world full of riddles, puzzles, mysteries, and conundrums. He’s inquisitive, polite, quirky, and determined, and it’s his story, the human element, that resonates most in this novel. He’s challenged by the world and overcomes the obstacles he faces, shaping into the hero rather than being the hero right from the beginning.
Overall, The Devil Pulls the Strings is a refreshing new adaptation to the fantasy genre, and likely to be a popular one.