Stolen Spirits

by Penny Ross

Diane and Stacey like to wander the city in pursuit of excitement. They flirt with danger, meet new guys and accept rides from strangers. Harmless fun. Or so they think.

Marti Rose, international bestselling author and amateur crime solver, returns to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada to visit her family and present at a fundraiser. Upon arrival, the Chief of Police enlists Marti’s help to solve the murder of a fifteen-year old girl.

Marti questions potential suspects and friends of the victim, Diane. Through her involvement with groups focused on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Marti becomes involved in a second murder case.

As a mother and writer, Marti questions why teenage girls flirt with danger. Is there a deeper reason for the killings? Are girls being murdered because they’re Indigenous or are the murders unrelated? Why have the shadows of evil invaded the safe haven of suburbia?

Stolen Spirits, a contemporary Canadian young adult murder mystery with Indigenous characters and voices provides a unique twist on murder as it addresses the untroubled, reckless attitude of youth. Spirits, tricksters, ghosts and forces from beyond provide false hope, scattered clues and jumbled nightmares as Marti and the police rush to solve the murders before the killer, or killers, strike again.

295 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 2014

About the author

Author of CAVE OF JOURNEYS, a family novel for youth 10 years and older, BIRD OF PARADISE DRUMS BEATING, a tale of reincarnation, MRS. MUGGLES LEARNS TO READ, an illustrated children's picture book for children 4 years and older and STOLEN SPIRITS, a contemporary murder mystery.

Penny has been writing since she was young and is self-published on Kindle and Amazon. She loves to hear from her fans!

Check out her new novelettes, HASHTAG MURDERS. This series of thrillers will be released in early August 2015.

Penny is also working on a fantasy novelette and a sequel to Cave of Journeys.

Reviews

[K. Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved “Stolen Spirits”. I’m Canadian and the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls is in the media all the time. I’ve glanced at some of the articles but sadly admit I’ve barely read anything about this. So when a friend of mine mentioned this book I bought it. I’m so glad I did.

The author, Penny Ross, explains the issue in the form of a fictional murder mystery. I felt like the first victim Diane could have been me when I was fifteen. The only difference is I’m not an Aboriginal girl. I was kind of wild though like Diane and I liked to party with guys I barely knew. That was her only fault and she died because of it.

I like how the author wrote the book from the perspective of the main character Marti Rose. The author didn’t stop there though. Ms. Ross made me feel empathy for Diane through the viewpoint of her teen friends. I ached for Stacey, Diane’s best friend when she couldn’t acknowledge her friends’ death. Stacey was in shock and bewildered throughout the novel. That made the death of her friend Diane more real to me.

Marti Rose reminded me of a famous character from TV. Marti is like that guy “Castle.” In “Stolen Spirits” she’s a well-known author and amateur crime fighter just like Rick Castle on TV. I don’t know if the author Ms. Ross wrote Marti as a tongue in cheek character but I like to think she did. People fawned over Marti and treated her like a celebrity but she was just a normal, older woman, like in her thirties or forties I’d guess since she had a teenage daughter as well.

I especially liked how Diane comes back as a ghost. Hope this isn’t a spoiler alert but shivers ran up my spine every time there was a scene with Diane in it. I felt her pain and since I’m a fan of the occult I thought that added another great layer to the story.

If you want to read a kick-ass murder mystery that’s fast-paced, with real characters check out “Stolen Spirits.” It was a bonus the author explains the current topic of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in a non-preachy, interesting manner. I highly recommend this book.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book grabs you from start to finish.
The number of Aboriginal people missing and murdered in Canada is astounding. And at the back of book is facts of all race/creed missing and/or murdered in Canada.
This book follows one girls' journey in the living and the cross over.

[Carl Ehnis · Rating 2 out of 5]

A crazed murderer is on the loose in Stolen Spirits, and who knows how many mangled bodies of young women will end up on the side of the road before the mystery is solved and the culprit is brought to justice?
Stolen Spirits takes place in a small town in Saskatchewan, Canada, and shows a great deal of promise. It features blood and mayhem, a famous mystery writer, communication with the dead through a Buddha-like mystic, and an urgent appeal for greater respect for the rights of Canadian Aboriginal women. Unfortunately, the promise of the premise is not fulfilled, given some problems with the writing and execution of the story.

First, it’s difficult to relate to the characters because they seem, for the most part, schematic and not fully developed. The main character, Marti Rose, is described as a “famous mystery author and amateur detective,” something of which the reader is reminded on almost every single page. Marti is brought in as a consultant to help investigate the murders of two young girls. Her character is pretty flat and never seems to exhibit the wit, cleverness, or charisma one would expect of her alleged celebrity—and she doesn’t really help much in finding the girls’ killer.

Most of the other characters are bland and function mainly to fill in details regarding the victims, their relationships to the deceased, and to shed light on the progression of events on the nights the murders took place. The killer himself is a cliché, nothing more than a garden-variety psychopath with an irrational hatred of women. The one possible flesh-and-blood character is Barry, a mentally-challenged Sears employee who has valiantly overcome childhood abuse and who helps out in the investigation despite his fear and distrust of the police.

There are also issues stylistically with Stolen Spirits, including wooden dialog, strange word choices, repetitious paragraphs, unusual use of 1930s Hollywood crime movie slang by the novel’s young cast, as well as numerous punctuation and grammatical errors.

Overall, Stolen Spirits has a unique vision and excellent potential, but could probably benefit from further character development and an intensive round of review by a professional editor.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Anna Leighton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel’s themes and issues (missing and/or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada) grabbed me immediately and are personal to me. I appreciate, very much, Ross’s goal to shine a spotlight on the numbers of missing women, unsolved disappearances and/or crimes.

Unfortunately, importance of the themes and value of the author’s goal aside, the writing wasn’t as strong as the ideas behind the book. Over writing, plus a tendency toward melodramatic, repetitive statements and wordy, overly “reflective” comments by pretty much every character in ways that real people just don’t talk, lessoned the impact of the hard scenes and the grief that would surround such atrocities, plus a lack of detail when scenes changed and the abrupt introduction of new characters, again with no clear setting change, made the plot hard to follow at times.

The sheer number of characters (plus similar names of characters) was confusing, especially initially, and I had difficulty identifying with the main character. I found it hard to believe that a novelist would be given the kind of access to the crime scene that Marti Rose was, and didn’t see her as actually being instrumental to solving the crime. She also confused and alienated me with inappropriately shallow comments, observations, and/or strange understatements at times, and despite her (too frequently made) assertions that the cases she was seeing were really getting to her, I didn’t feel that or see it. The light banter, etc. weakened any potentially chilling, frightening scenes and made them seem out of place. I found myself wondering if the author, to protect herself—or maybe to shield the reader—didn’t allow herself to go as deep and dark as the story matter warranted.

All that said, throughout the book there were some genuinely creepy, moving and thought-provoking moments. If you’re interested in the topic of missing or murdered aboriginal women in Canada (and we all should be), I’d recommend at least giving this book a try. Not every book is for every person and this one well might be for you. Ross does, at least, try to show a variety of voices.

[Jackie Ley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This YA novel failed to tick too many boxes to make a satisfying read, not least in the author’s claims about its theme and subject matter. The novel purported to centre upon the serious theme of missing and murdered indigenous women of Canada, but apart from some random references to aboriginal folklore, there was no sense of the ethnic origin of the characters. The murdered teenagers were apparently victims of a misogynist killer with a grudge against so-called whores rather than there being any hint of an ethnic origin motive.
The main protagonist of the novel, a famous crime author and amateur sleuth called Marti, was so smug and patronising, it was impossible to identify with her. She accepted the unlikely adulation of everyone who crossed her path as her due and made far too many pronouncements like, ‘Now that I have a number of devoted fans, I thought it was time to give back to the community.’ Frankly I just wanted to make her another murder victim! On the whole, I felt uneasy with the device of having a crime writer protagonist whose wip was a novel called ‘Stolen Spirits’. I suspect it led the author to fall too readily into the trap of omniscient narration rather than close-up third person narration which draws the reader in to the lives of the characters. Consequently, characters tended to remain two dimensional and difficult to differentiate from one another. So in spite of a series of intended suspense building scenes from the unknown murderer’s viewpoint, when the identity of the perpetrator is finally revealed, we don’t know the character well enough to react with anything other than indifference.
Barry was the most sympathetic character, proof that the author is fully capable of making the reader empathise with her characters, but all too often the numerous descriptions of grief and strong emotion tip over into melodrama, as in the description of teenage Stacey’s behaviour at her friend’s funeral: ‘Racking sobs tore through Stacey’s slight form. Her mouth jerked, moaning sounds snatched from bloodless lips. Stacey appeared to be lifeless, her skin pale, a living corpse.’ When it comes to portraying emotion, less is always more.

[Sarah Downing · Rating 2 out of 5]

The intention of Stolen Spirits is to highlight the 1,200 murdered and missing indigenous women in Canada and the continuing rise in that number.
The story is about world famous mystery author Marti Rose who is in Regina, Canada, to promote her latest book, which has the same title and theme as the novel itself. A close friend of Marti's niece, a First Nation's girl by the name of Diane, is murdered and the chief of the local police department (a fan of Marti's books) insists she is brought in to help with the investigation.
The book does provide stats of the number of murdered and missing indigenous women and mentions some helpful websites and groups throughout the narrative as well as providing a list at the end of the book.
The pronunciation of Wisahkecahk, a trickster god that is mentioned throughout the novel, is given in brackets in the middle of a line of dialogue where it is rather jarring.
Whilst in town Marti, is staying with her a sister Marni, and the similarity of the names makes it difficult to keep the two character's straight at times.
There are long stretches of dialogue with little description to set the scene, for example, when Marti's daughter arrives in town, there is a whole page of dialogue before we are informed that the scene is taking place at the airport.
Lastly, there is the fantastical solution of one of the deaths, which is solved solely by clues provided by the dead girl herself in visions and dreams experience by two of the secondary characters and yet (unrealistically) the police still manage to find a judge willing to issue a warrant.
Despite what promised to be an interest topic, the book failed to hold my interest, and for me, read more like a first draft rather than a finished novel.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Allie Cresswell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Penny Ross' 'Stolen Spirits' is a vehicle through which she brings to our attention the plight of the many indigenous Canadian women who are murdered or go missing. Clearly this is a topic about which the author feels passionately and a situation which goes under-reported. Her novel uses the violent deaths of a number of First Nations girls as its dramatic impetus, and the narrative follows the attempts of police and crime writer Marti Rose to solve the case.

Getting the balance right between polemic and fiction was never going to be easy. Ideally the narrative will yield up the facts organically, and the reader will have understanding and perhaps even a desire to act dawn upon her as the plot unfolds; the narrative, in other words, should drive the argument forwards, not the other way around. Unfortunately I felt that here the author’s intention weighed too heavily on the plot. A fact-and-figure filled key-note speech in the middle sat like a boulder on the story. The plot struggled to prove and uphold the writer’s premise. As far as I could see the girls were abducted and murdered because the perpetrator was a violent, sexist animal who preyed on young, naive women regardless of their cultural heritage.

As a novel I felt that there were areas for improvement. Stylistically, the writing was awkward. Using rhetorical questions - sometimes long lists of them - to keep the reader up to speed and maintain tension is not good technique. There was far too much dialogue, often unattributed so I did not know who was speaking, and a lot of it did not ring true. Like any crime-story reader, I expected to be given a fighting chance of discovering the identity of the murderer myself but this was frustrated by a basket of red-herrings and the author’s frequent use of potentially revealing internal monologues from characters she did not identify.

[D.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stolen Spirits is a murder/mystery that revolves around the solving of the murder of Diane, an indigenous girl. The idea behind the novel, to bring attention to the vast number of indigenous women and girls that are victims of violent crime, is worthwhile. The statistics and further information provided about this horrible issue are frightening and shocking. There definitely needs to be more attention drawn to this situation. While the story and idea are good, unfortunately the novel itself falls short.

The story doesn’t flow for several reasons. There is an abundance of insignificant details to slow the pace down. Additionally there is a lot of repetition of facts and/or ideas. I also found the inner reflection of the characters, especially Marti, disruptive.

The dialogue between the characters was unrealistic. The dialogue was used to provide an abundance of background information. This is fine – as long as the dialogue can be weaved into the storytelling. That wasn't true in this case, which made the dialogue stilted and unbelievable.

I couldn’t connect with the character of Marti. How many times must the reader be told the main character is a famous author? I also found the premise of the police involving an author and amateur sleuth in a case to be unrealistic. Her inner dialogue, which plays constantly during the novel, was disruptive and a bit over the top.

I feel like the story and ideas of this book could make a great novel if the story was streamlined and edited.

[Georgie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third review of a novel by Penny Ross, and this is certainly the best of those three books.
Evil spirits are lurking. A teenage girl is murdered. A crime-writing novelist is enlisted by police to help solve this terrible crime.
I found this story absorbing and well-paced until nearly the middle when it slowed for a while. Fortunately the pace quickened again. Towards the end it went a bit too fast when all the pieces of the puzzle were being placed together.
As with all Ms Ross’ stories, indigenous people from Canada are the protagonists. In the case of “Stolen Spirits”, the theme is about the mistreatment of aboriginal girls by (I assume) white men (and one woman). These girls are raped and murdered; beaten and otherwise treated badly. This is a story for teenage aboriginal girls to highlight the dangers of accepting car rides by strangers. It is an effective story, but perhaps a bit heavy-handed in getting the message across.
As a crime novel with a mystery to solve, it stands up well.
I was given a copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

Four stars

[Fred McKibben · Rating 2 out of 5]

The description of Stolen Spirits by Penny Ross leads readers to believe the novel will explore the serious problem of missing and murdered indigenous women of western Canada. Unfortunately, that theme, which might have been very compelling, wasn’t really developed in the book, but was discussed in the Author’s Notes. There was very little description of settings and characters throughout the book. Several times, I found myself surprised at finding out something about a character that was completely at odds with the mental image I had formed earlier in to book. There were a lot of characters, many known only by their first names, making it difficult to keep them straight. Also, a lack of dialogue tags made it hard to follow who was speaking.