It’s a pity other reviewers have made clichés of words such as chilling, thriller, and page-turner, for Mark Fleming’s The Call of the Siren certainly deserves those epithets. It is a well paced, well written, novel with beautifully narrated settings that key your senses, and realistic action that will keep your E-reader running hot.

The characters, including Eleanor the Siren, come alive with unique emotions and individual attributes that bring them to life on the pages. In Eleanor, Mr. Fleming has a storyline with limitless possibilities; for how can we know what a siren will do next?

Negatively, I found only three things that disrupted my flight of fantasy: Mr. Fleming has been suckered into the myth that a twelve volt auto battery can produce a shock. I also had trouble visualizing how the heroine could ‘melt’ into the ground near the ocean and rematerialize, I presume, miles away in a pond. My last objection is definitely a personal preference. I didn’t notice the novel was the first in a series and was greatly disappointed with the ending. At over 111,000 words I was expecting an end, a climax. There was a climax, but it was on me when I read “Eleanor will return:”

In conclusion; if you read for the love of reading and enjoy following the exploits of a favorite character then you should consider Eleanor the siren for your next journey.

**** 4 Stars

DOYLE