Review: Darker, deeper and totally riveting
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 15, 2013
Jianghu is the the third installment of Charles Colyott's Randall Lee Mysteries series.  The first two books, Changes and Pressure Point were fantastic and Jianghu isn't the least bit of a let down.  I had to force myself to put it down from time to time just to give my eyes a break when the words became blurred lines on the page.Jianghu has less focus on martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine, but delves into Randall Lee's past and his emotions, as well as those of the secondary characters.  To me it was more a psycho-thriller bordering on mild horror than a mystery.  That's good though, because although Mr. Colyott is writing about familiar characters (for those of us who have read his previous books and stories), this turn into the darker side is one of the things that keeps the Randall Lee books from going stale.Mr. Colyott's treatment of the very (for me, especially) sensitive subjects of child abduction, sexual torture and the ensuing serial killings for the pleasure of monsters with the most twisted and perverted of minds, while transmitting the horrific, were very tastefully and sensitively written.  In so many books, these terrible things are described in such detail that that the authors seem to glorify them, and to the extent that baby rapists would have a fine time reading them.  They won't find their jollies in Jianghu, and for that, you have my unending gratitude, Mr. Colyott.But there is a wonderful balance between the dark and the light.  Randall Lee's self deprecating humor breaks the tension in all the right places.  More of Master Cheng's past is revealed.  And from her first appearance until almost the very end, I wondered about who Beatrix really was and her motivation for helping Lee find the bad guys.  The answer to that came as a real stunner!Thanks again for a wonderful read, Mr. Colyott.  That little cliffhanger you left with us keeps us hungering for the next Randall Lee book.