Official Review: The Devil's Playground: Book One of the ...

casper · Post by **casper** » 08 Dec 2013, 06:15

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Devil's Playground: Book One of the Sapphire Staff Series" by Cynthia Sens.]

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This is the first book in a series about the mysterious Sapphire Staff and introduces the reader to the main character, Melburn Taylor. Mel himself is a bit of a mystery: he was born in 1916 and fought in World War 2, but is only 44 years old in 2011; he also has some strange habits including blowing out light bulbs and electronic equipment which is often a bit of a nuisance and at times can be life threatening.

It turns out that Mel is a time traveller, although none of his present day acquaintances are aware of this, and the handicap of electric dysfunction is somehow linked to the events that brought him to 1998. He is also rather paranoid, and as the story unfolds it becomes apparent that he is justified in being so.

He is a genealogist by profession, but turns detective when asked by a friend to help find a missing boy and soon finds himself in the middle of a dangerous adventure involving Nazis, evil arch villains and his own past. Into the ensuing mayhem comes Emily, Mel's prospective new research assistant, if she can stand the course, and bringing with her some mysteries of her own; as the web tightens there is a feeling that people and events are being orchestrated by some unknown power.

I must say that I like Mel; most of the story is narrated in the first person by him, with plenty of wise cracks and dry humour reminiscent of Philip Marlowe. He certainly doesn't take himself too seriously, and it's nice to meet a hero who pays such attention to his stomach. The other characters are quite well drawn; I especially like the relationship between him and his friend, Joseph, who eats even more than Mel, and I found myself hoping that they are all going to be alright as the drama unfolds.

This is quite a short story, but full of action and well paced, and there is a lot of humour, provided both by the entertaining characters and by Mel's coming to terms (or not) with life in the 21st Century. In spite of the fact that it took a while to get to the main theme (the missing boy), the background information conveyed in the build-up is interesting, often amusing, and mostly relevant, although overall I found more questions were posed than answered. Hopefully, further enlightenment will come later in the series.

The downside to the book is the number of typos and grammatical errors which definitely spoil the reading experience for me. The punctuation is a bit erratic and sometimes missing, so can involve a bit of re-reading to get the meaning of a sentence.

I have rated the book three stars (although it may really only warrant two in view of the lack of proofreading) because I think it's a good story and I like Ms Sens' writing style, even if it is not always the most elegant. I would recommend this book to someone who likes a good adventure story with a twist of humour and who is prepared to overlook the mistakes.

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