*No Major Spoilers*
Her name is Lisa, and ever since Eddie Raven hooked up with her, strange things keep happening.
How strange? Lisa can take on any role at a moment’s notice. She’s Maid Marian. She’s Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. In an instant, she can become the sexy, gum-chewing secretary to his hard-boiled detective. She can even become Doc Holliday’s frontier lady, Big Nose Kate.
But who is she really? That’s something Eddie’s got to find out before this series of strange adventures, which began in The Master of Dreams, overtakes him. And if Lisa’s not enough of a problem, there’s also the powerful creature who claims to be the chief demon in hell, who seems convinced that he, Eddie, and Lisa are on the same side.
Is Eddie being told the truth? He’d better decide quickly, because the one thing that’s clear is that he’s running out of time.
I have read Mr. Resnick’s works before. I own the whole Weird Wild West series, as well as owning some others of his works. I learned while writing this review that he passed away in January 2020 after a long battle with cancer. So on to brighter topics, let’s dive in to The Mistress of Illusions!
I haven’t read the first novel in the trilogy. Normally, I’d be concerned with starting in the middle of the series, but I thought I’d give it a chance. Well, I don’t think much goes on in the first book besides the introduction of the main characters and the event that brings them all together. So if that’s a concern for you, then don’t worry on skipping Masters of Dreams.
I listened to this on audio and I made a bookmark before I fell asleep, and I think I forgot to go back to the bookmark to see what I missed. Sad to say is that I didn’t miss much. I think the first two books could be trimmed down and compacted into one book. Near the end Lisa gives Raven a recap on the adventures he’s gone on and what lessons he was supposed to gather from them.
For example, in one of the adventures he’s Robin Hood after being arrested and locked in the sheriff’s jails. Well, what he was supposed to learn from this was how to escape a jail/prison without using any weapons.
Throughout this story, the communication between Raven, Lisa, and the demon is very poor. Raven keeps wanting to know what all of this “training” is for and Lisa’s and the demon’s answers are continually vague until the end. Even when the big explanation comes we still don’t learn all that much. Raven throughout doesn’t understand why he’s been chosen for this mission. All of this frustration eventually started making me frustrated as well.
So overall, I thought it was fun getting to see Raven go through all of these micro adventures through literary and historical events. However, the banter about his self-doubt and Lisa’s tight lips made this an irritating read. I’m not going to read the finale to be honest. Not really that interested with how poor these characters were not likable.
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