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Book Review of A Circle of Souls

A Circle of Souls
reviewed on + 11 more book reviews


A Circle of Souls, by Preetham Grandhi, is a paranormal thriller that is entertaining all the way. A little girl is murdered, and another little girl seems to have the answers to the murder in her nightmares. Child psychiatrist Dr. Peter Gram gets involved in putting the puzzle pieces together.

The thing that attracted me most to this book, outside of the cover, was the authors background. Born and raised in the city of Bangalore, India, his determination led to a new life in the US, where he found himself working with children in inner Bronx who had childhoods even more complex than his own.

This book is outside my normal genre, and I was uncomfortable with the concept of Seekers and Seeked Ones, reincarnation and fortune-telling, though they were certainly thought-provoking. And the gruesome beginnings were a bit of a turnoff for me, though they were compensated by a spirit of hope that pervaded the book.

Reservations aside, I found this to be an easy-reading page-turner that kept me intrigued from beginning to end. I kept feeling compelled to read on.

It was obvious that the author wrote in his field of expertise, child psychiatry, and I appreciated the insights into that field. The characters were well-developed through alternating third-person chapters, with likable but human heroes and sinister but human villains.

An amazing debut novel.