Foretold by Jana Oliver

FORETOLD, Jana Oliver, St. Martin’s Griffin, $9.95, reviewed by Jim Brock.

FORETOLD is the fourth (and final) in Jana Oliver’s Demon Trappers series and continues her remarkable run of winners with me. She is one of the few authors who are automatic reads for me. When she publishes, I am more than ready to read and enjoy.

FORETOLD is perfectly placed in the quartet. The action in the first three books flowed forward. The characters grew and the story expanded as epic battles with demons and fallen angels became more intense and the stakes rose higher and higher. Riley Blackthorne’s relationship with fellow trapper Denver Beck was often frustrating and sometimes bewildering but mostly complicated. Their dangerous profession, his past relationship with Riley’s father, and his feelings for her were all boiling in the cauldron of his troubled past. For their survival and any future together that past had to be confronted and reach some sort of closure.

FORETOLD is that confrontation. Beck and Riley journey outside Atlanta to his small Georgia hometown where they face a different kind of “demon” and a different kind of danger. The “demon” is Beck’s abusive mother and the danger is a hostile town and a murder mystery. Growing up and living now in a small Georgia town, I can testify that Jana has nailed their reality.

Their reward for this undertaking is returning to Atlanta in time for a final battle with fallen angel Sartael, who is trying to take control of Hell from Lucifer. During this, Riley actually is taken to hell by the angel Ori for a meeting with Lucifer. Of course, the heat wouldn’t be that bad since she had already been to South Georgia.

It didn’t take a seer to foretell that I would love FORETOLD. Since the series began, I have wanted to know what made Beck tick – and now I know. I also wanted to know how Jana would conclude the epic struggle in which Riley played such a deadly role – and now I know. It is FORETOLD.