Rating: 
Summary: A superb storyteller
Review: In May of 1943, on a remote Pacific island, the American and Japanese soldiers are doing battle with each other. However, it soon becomes apparent that there is another sinister force that is causing deaths of all of them. Bodies are being discovered in horrific condition. It does not appear a human could have caused such havoc.
The setting then switches to current day Boston where bodies are turning up headless and mutilated. Could there be a relationship between Boston and the Pacific island? Investigating is the detective team of Washington and Brogan. They must travel as far away as Russia and as near as a prison island in Boston to get answers. The results might very well save the human race.
JINN is not reallya true mystery. It would be better to characterize this work as horror or supernatural. It is actually written in the same vein as a Dean Koontz novel. I realized early on that this book may very well be out of the genre. This, as well as the very long length (437 pages with very small type) should have been enough to put me off this book. However, the book is compulsively readable. Once started, it is impossible to put down. The story becomes increasingly implausible and the characters more stereotypic as the book progresses. However, by that time, the reader will be solidly hooked. This is far from a flawless work. It definitely goes on a couple of hundred pages more than it should have. Pacing can lag, at times. There is virtually nothing socially or politically relevant about it. And the writing, especially dialogue, can be a bit shoddy. However, Mr. Delaney is a superb storyteller. How else to explain the fact that I lasted through this very long book with so much else to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, horrible finish...
Review: Delaney starts with an interesting premise (though not a particularly original one...see "Relic" and many others) and carries it off passably well for about half of this book. However, about halfway through the book, he seems to completely lose focus (or interest? time to research? whatever), and the second half of the book reads like a bad TV movie script...a *really* bad one. If this is what passes for an impressive debut novel these days, then that's a sad commentary on how bad fiction writing is these days, not anything positive about Mr. Delaney. Read "Relic" if you haven't already if this genre/theme interests you, but skip this entry.
Rating: 
Summary: Very well done indeed...
Review: Begins in May 1943:
On a remote island in the South Pacific a squad of United States Marines do battle with the Japanese soldiers on the island. But something else is on the island, something ancient, and it is hunting humans. Bodies begin to pile up. Worse, the demon makes it off the island and onto The Galla, a WWII Merchant Marine Liberty ship. Only to be trapped aboard when the ship goes down. Continues in July 2008:
Boston Homicide Detective Jefferson and his partner, Lieutenant Brogan, are after a serial killer. Bodies are being found posed and mutilated in bizarre ways. Their investigation will take them in many directions - from a sunken WWII ship, now in a Boston museum, to Blade Island, a prison where the inmates are terrified of something in "The Pit", and a few side trips. ***** Jinn is a dark novel, full of action and suspense. Things just never slowed down. An intense read that had me jumping at any sudden noise. I loved it! This one will keep you engrossed in each dark page. Hard to believe that this is the author's debut novel. Highly recommended! ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Genre Bender
Review: If you like serial killer thrillers with a supernatural twist you'll love Jinn. It's Alien meets James Patterson. It's scary, gory, page-turning fun!
Rating:
Summary: Officer, arrest that editor!
Review: Ridiculously bad editing strips this book of any enjoyment it would otherwise offer. From the cardboard characters, silly action sequences and groan-inducing dialog, everything is painfully contrived. The book seems to comprehend that it does not know how to frighten the reader, so it spews forth a constant stream of uninspired bloodshed and gore to compensate. Sadly, it feels that fear is created by describing brutal mutilations over and over, with a few scenes from popular horror films thrown in for good measure. This book is HIGHLY derivative, and lacks any impressive knowledge of science, religion or psychology. If it weren't quite so poorly edited, this book might be enjoyable for squeamish readers who have seen very few horror films. If you decide to read this book here are a few examples of the silliness you can look forward to: 1.Protagonist says "a bullet cracked over my head" and then explains "You can't really hear a bullet passing near you. There's no sound. But you can sense it. And all around me the air was filled with these sensations." What!? 2.During the climax, the protagonist describes the close-quarters gun battle he is engaged in as reminding him of "that Whack-A-Mole game, with the moles' heads that popped up for an instant and ducked back down before you could whack them with the padded hammer." 3.The protagonist is trapped inside an office building, with Satan himself rampaging through the neighboring room. The immortal, invincible hell-spawned creature is berserk, slaughtering everyone in sight. What does our hero do? He runs off to find a bathrobe for his bimbo girlfriend. Seriously. 4.Scientists examine strange bone from an unknown species. The results of their analysis? "You could batter the femur with a baseball bat for an hour and not put a crack in it." Let me get this straight... Scientists. Beating on a priceless artifact. With a baseball bat. For an hour.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe the book was good, but completely unreadable
Review: This book, I was told, was quite good. I wouldn't know since I have poor eye-sight, and the font used in this book was tiny and ran together.
The downside of ordering books online is that the font is very rarely mentioned, despite the fact that it makes all the differences in the world. Now I will probably end up selling it for a buck or two, without ever having had the pleasure of reading it.
Maybe everyone else in the world can read tiny typeface, but I certainly can not, and do not have th resources to throw away $20 here and there for a book no one will read.
I plan on asking Amazon about a refund, or exchange, anything, so that this will not happen again in the future.
Meanwhile, on any auction of ours, on any review I leave, I will try to always mention to font and readability. I would deeply appreciate it if anyone else writing reviews would do the same thing.
Thank you for reading my two-cents worth.
~Mariance
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Best horror book I have read in a long time. I guarantee you will not put the book down during the final hundred pages. If you need to stay awake at night, this book will work better than a trip to Dunkin Donuts. If you are from the Boston area, be prepared to be scared of walking around in your own city. Boston Common has suddenly become a lot scarier at night.....
Rating:
Summary: Scary tale of myth
Review: For horror fans out there, this is the book to read. The book opens in the jungles during World War II where soliders find more than just the Japanese are slaughtering their troops. An ancient evil lives in the jungle and as the book opens to the year 2008 in Boston, people begin to realize that the evil is no longer a myth. This story is the first published works of what I hope to be many more books from this author. The plot line will draw you in and take you for a thrilling ride. This book is hard to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the two worst books I've ever finished
Review:
After an impressive first 75 pages this story comes apart like a high-speed train wreck. Upon reading the manuscript the publisher should have torn up the last 350 pages, kept the first 75 to 90 pages and told this fellow to go home and not to come back until he was prepared to finish his book properly, assuming he could. I made the decision to read all of this book in the spirit in which someone else might decide to run a 50 mile marathon on a hot day with no one watching and for no good reason for running. I need to read a couple of good books now in order to cleanse my brain.
In all seriousness, I would not be at all surprised to learn that this book had been written in pieces, by a group of writers, just to see if they could get it published. There's no other explanation for it's being this completely disjointed. No kidding. That could well be what this book is. A group project for fun.
If you're the least bit tempted to give it a try, check it out of the library by all means.
Rating:
Summary: Give it a Shot!
Review: this was one of the wildest stories i've read in a while. has a little bit of everything,pulling from a whole variety of genres and some parts are really, seriously, scary. i could see delaney moving in a number of different direction in his next books...and yes, i hope he gets better editing. the characters are a little thin, but the plot and writing style more than makes up for this. some scenes are vaguely familiar, but others are quite original and the book as a whole could almost be a screenplay in itself. very cinematic read and worth a look, if you have a strong stomach.
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