The Burning Lamp

Keeping a long running series interesting to it's readers can be a hard thing for a writer to do. Some of the books will sometimes feel rushed and half finished, but others may be just right. Amanda Quick's The Burning Lamp is book eight in the Arcane series by Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz, and it is a good one.

We meet Adelaide Pyne at a young age escaping from a brothel. And taking a mysterious artifact with her. We meet her again as an adult, who has just recently returned from the United States and wearing widow's weeds. She also has been secretly carrying out raids on brothels and rescuing the young girls who are there. She ends up meeting the "Director" of a criminal organization called the "Consortium." Griffin Winters is interested in her because of the raids, but he's even more interested when he finds out that she is a dream light reader and that she has the lamp that was stolen from his murdered parents' home.

Adelaide is not certain what to think of this crime lord, but agrees to help Winters work the lamp to help his paranormal senses and save his sanity. But when their lives are threatened, they must work together to figure out who else wants the lamp and why? Is it another crime lord? Jones and Jones? The Arcane Society?

I think one of the main reasons I like this book is Adelaide's character. It keeps coming out throughout the story that she has had a wilder past (touring with a wild wild west show, etc.) that just being a "social reformer". It makes for an amusing ongoing storyline throughout the book.

Quick/Krentz does a nice job filling in more Arcane lore and filling in gaps from the previous book in the series. I'm looking forward to the next book in the adventure - which she is writing under her Jayne Castle persona. A fun read.