Book Review: Spirits of the Once Walking

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Spirits of the Once Walking     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Babs Lakey
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Psychological Suspense
Series: Elsie Sanders # 3
AMF Limited, 2002, 294 pp.

Randolph Boodles is the owner and manager of Choices, a rehab center for alcoholics and drug addicts. He is also a hard core drug addict who abuses his wife and children, and rapes the children in his program. As relaxation, Randolph enjoys trolling for someone to rape and kill which is how he met Kandle. He offers her a lift in his slick Jaguar and she accepts but it isn’t long before she realizes he is going to hurt her. She bails out at an abandoned car junkyard.

She meets Elsiee Sanders who relishes freedom after being kept in jail awaiting trial for murder in which the jury found her not guilty. The media dubbed her as Avenger- Woman. Elsie is able to chase Randall away but he is not through with either woman or the friends of the Avenger. He rapes Kandle in a cemetery and attacks Elise’s friend Mary. He stalks them until Elise decides to uncover his identity to keep she and her friends safe.

The protagonist is a strong-willed woman who is determined never to be a victim. She realizes that in a violent society sometimes vigilante justice is the only recourse to get the vermin off the street. The villain in SPIRITS OF THE ONCE WALKING is a caricature of evil and as the book progresses he descends into madness, making him more violent than ever. The cat and mouse game between victims and perpetrator is fascinating to watch unfold and readers will want to read the other two Elise Sanders novels because Babs Lakey is a writer who delivers.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner