Sorrow’s Turn (Marker Chronicles #3) Review

Title: Sorrow’s Turn | Series: The Marker Chronicles #3 | Author: Danielle DeVor | Publisher: City Owl Press | Pub. Date: 2017-3-14 | Pages: 258 | ASIN: B06WP4RFC4 | Genre: Horror Fantasy | Language: English | Triggers: Child Death (talked about, not witnessed) | Rating: 4 out of 5 | Source: Received a free copy from the author for review consideration |

Sorrow’s Turn

Some Things are Worse Than Demons.

Jimmy Holiday, reluctant exorcist, is finally getting the help he needs from the higher-ups. The Order of Markers is sending him to the Vatican’s exorcism school. Now, he’ll receive the training he should have gotten at the beginning. One problem, someone wants to sabotage him.

When his time at the school is cut short, Jimmy receives an interesting new case. It is the assignment that no one wants—a corpse has come back to life. And it isn’t a zombie.

Too bad nothing goes as expected. Armed with his usual bag of tricks, Jimmy thinks everything will eventually be all right. Well, that is until his betrayer turns out to be the person he trusts most. – Goodreads

Sorrow’s Turn Review

Sorrow’s Turn is the third entry into the Marker Chronicle series that started with Sorrow’s Point. Sorrow’s Point was an amazing book with characters that made a permanent impression. The story continued, although not quite in the same vein, in Sorrow’s Edge. That book was still good, but had a different feel to it. With Sorrow’s Turn, it feels like Danielle DeVor has firmly found her footing with the story overall, and though it’s not what I’d hoped it’d be, it’s still a very good read.  In fact, it’s another read-in-one-sitting book.

Most of Sorrow’s Turn deals with stuff that specifically involves the family. It sees Lucy’s story take a few disturbing turns. Some readers of the series will have seen coming, others not so much. There is a trigger warning at the bottom of this post. If you are triggered by things involving children, please read it. I thought the exploration of Lucy’s personality development was very interesting.  Now, they do deal with an odd (and disgusting) case near the end involving a couple of rednecks and a very evil book. I actually would have liked to see the case get explored a little bit more. It wrapped up a bit too fast.

The family unit of Jimmy Holiday, Tabitha, Lucy, Doc, and Isaac is unusual, but it works. It’s easy to care about each of them, and each one of them is special in some way. Even the cat has a bit of mystery attached to him. Sorrow’s Turn fleshed out Lucy, and saw Jimmy grow up a bit. Big Red makes several appearances in this book, but it’s still not clear exactly what he’s planning. It gave me a hell of a time trying to figure it out.

The feel of Sorrow’s Turn is somewhat lighter/funnier (though it could not be called funny as a whole) in comparison to the other two books. On the whole, it’s fast-paced, tightly written, and an entertaining read. Some of the phrasing in Sorrow’s Turn is over-used but it never hits eye-roll point.

Overall, I really enjoyed Sorrow’s Turn  and the Marker Chronicles series overall. People new to the series need to start at the first book to properly appreciate everything that happens in book three. I’m eagerly awaiting the fourth book, because it’s clear that this story isn’t even close to being over.