What do you think?
Rate this book
Harbinger P.I. #12
Purgatory Blood
Smile, and the world smiles with you. Cause an apocalypse, and the Hounds drag you to Purgatory.
After the events of Final Magic, Alec finds himself in a place where life is cheap and death is a constant companion.
Time to win new friends and avoid new enemies.
After the events of Final Magic, Alec finds himself in a place where life is cheap and death is a constant companion.
Time to win new friends and avoid new enemies.
214 pages, ebook
First published December 23, 2022
28 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 28, 2022
More like purgatory fatigue
What is happening to this series? No magic, no mystery until the last quarter of the story and after a year wait, it is shorter than a novella. Making it worse, the mystery to solve is affecting purgatory recently and the use of the souls and power structure in the realm is barely acknowledged. This in no way reads like a Harbinger adventure but instead it feels like a short story written as a class project. This may be a sign to stop reading the series.
What is happening to this series? No magic, no mystery until the last quarter of the story and after a year wait, it is shorter than a novella. Making it worse, the mystery to solve is affecting purgatory recently and the use of the souls and power structure in the realm is barely acknowledged. This in no way reads like a Harbinger adventure but instead it feels like a short story written as a class project. This may be a sign to stop reading the series.
December 29, 2022
not his best work but still pretty darn good :)
Not my favorite of the series but honestly I put that down for the editing. For reference to whomever edits this in the future. Up River would be against the current towards the source. Down river would be with the current away from the source. That continued error though out the first few chapters just threw me and I had issues getting into the story from there
Not my favorite of the series but honestly I put that down for the editing. For reference to whomever edits this in the future. Up River would be against the current towards the source. Down river would be with the current away from the source. That continued error though out the first few chapters just threw me and I had issues getting into the story from there
January 12, 2023
Ah, Mr. Wright. Instead of improving your writing seems to be slipping backward. >sigh<
Alec wakes up in a place called Purgatory after using the Spear of Destiny to save his own world's magic and from destruction. He finds himself with two comrades in the middle of a forest and chased by hostile inhabitants called the Blank Faced Men - humans who've been turned into mindless drones by a very poorly described monster which, in turn, is controlled by an even more poorly described greedy monster of a man who uses other people's souls to power his magic. We don't get much deeper than that with the king or the "complicated" relationship he and his wife have.
The basic plot isn't bad, not really. Just a bit thin, and there's no real attempt to explore this version of Purgatory, nor explain it really. It definitely doesn't match the legendary Purgatory where souls are sent indefinitely to await whether they'll get into whatever passes for their heaven or hell depending on who prays for them (or pays enough in indulgences for same). I was disappointed by that, but I can understand Mr. Wright not wanting to get into religious connotations with his story. I can get behind that.
This is really just a surface level book. It's not deep, but it was diverting enough that I enjoyed reading it while wishing it was better.
The one thing I will complain about though is this. Has Mr. Wright ever been near a river or, for that matter, a stream? His character Alec kept talking about going upriver when, in fact, he was headed down river. I have never been kayaking or river rafting or hiked that much, but even I know, when the water is running the same direction you're headed either by boat or on foot, you're going down river. When you are walking the opposite way of the current, you're going upriver. Alec, for a guy who is as active as you are, you should know your directions better.
Alec wakes up in a place called Purgatory after using the Spear of Destiny to save his own world's magic and from destruction. He finds himself with two comrades in the middle of a forest and chased by hostile inhabitants called the Blank Faced Men - humans who've been turned into mindless drones by a very poorly described monster which, in turn, is controlled by an even more poorly described greedy monster of a man who uses other people's souls to power his magic. We don't get much deeper than that with the king or the "complicated" relationship he and his wife have.
The basic plot isn't bad, not really. Just a bit thin, and there's no real attempt to explore this version of Purgatory, nor explain it really. It definitely doesn't match the legendary Purgatory where souls are sent indefinitely to await whether they'll get into whatever passes for their heaven or hell depending on who prays for them (or pays enough in indulgences for same). I was disappointed by that, but I can understand Mr. Wright not wanting to get into religious connotations with his story. I can get behind that.
This is really just a surface level book. It's not deep, but it was diverting enough that I enjoyed reading it while wishing it was better.
The one thing I will complain about though is this. Has Mr. Wright ever been near a river or, for that matter, a stream? His character Alec kept talking about going upriver when, in fact, he was headed down river. I have never been kayaking or river rafting or hiked that much, but even I know, when the water is running the same direction you're headed either by boat or on foot, you're going down river. When you are walking the opposite way of the current, you're going upriver. Alec, for a guy who is as active as you are, you should know your directions better.
May 12, 2023
After the events of the last book Alec finds himself in Purgatory. The story starts immediately after that cliff-hanger. Fair warning-this book has one as well. I was surprised at how quickly the story moved. I was worried I’d get bored without Leon and the sisters (they are my favorite). With Felicity I keep going back and forth. She was on Earth for 5 months and didn’t tell Alec!?! I have never fully trusted her and stuff like that doesn’t help. Anyway back to this book. There were some new characters, a few of which I wish we could have learned more about. The ending seemed rushed. I am going to guess this did not go through the editing process. Aside from the random typos there were whole words missing. I do that when I type. My brain thinks my fingers already typed the word and so moves on to the next. However I am not an author. I am quite aware of my lack of talent. Indeed I loathed doing essays in school. All books have one or two minor things-perhaps a comma instead of a period, or “than” instead of “then” (that one really irks me). At the end of the book the author had a note asking people to e-mail him the typos so they could be fixed. That’s great…if it had appeared at the front of the book so we could be marking as we read. I would say there were probably 20 mistakes. That is way too many for any book much less one this short. I did enjoy the book for what it was. I only hope the next one is vetted better. The world that we will now be in is different. I hope this will not be like that episode of “Dallas” where Bobby gets out of the shower and everything that the audience saw for a whole season never happened. I was just a kid then, but I remember people were very angry. The spin-off series seems to always be pushed back. I’m guessing covid played a part in that. “Skeleton Key” was listed back in 2020 but never came to be.
June 29, 2024
Purgatory Blood is Book 12 of Adam Wright's Harbinger PI series. Back when I ordered this novel, I read that the novel is the ending of the series. I am sorry to say goodbye to the series, though reading this novel makes me less sorry to see it go. Why?
For a wind-it-up last book of a series, I would expect a thrill-a-minute, heart stopping, can't put it down novel. For me, this was nowhere near that.
For one, not one of Alec's usual group of paranormal investigators/friends were a part of the novel until the short final chapter, and then it was only Felicity and the Blackwell sisters.
Secondly, the new characters were decidedly uninteresting. None of them were fleshed out enough for the reader (at least for this reader) to care about. The plot was meh. The execution of plot events was meh. The Final chapter, meant to see Alex riding off into the proverbial sunset was more than meh, it was boring.
This novel had a lot of proofing errors. See my notes if you are interested.
I could only find one summary of the novel that indicated the novel would be the series ender. That was on the Book Notification website, where I found this: "...The most recently released novel ... There are no upcoming novels for the Harbinger P.I. series."
I rated the novel three stars. Two of those stars were a gift, as I have greatly enjoyed the rest of the series. I am sorry to see the series end, but I'm even sorrier to see it go out on a sour note.
For a wind-it-up last book of a series, I would expect a thrill-a-minute, heart stopping, can't put it down novel. For me, this was nowhere near that.
For one, not one of Alec's usual group of paranormal investigators/friends were a part of the novel until the short final chapter, and then it was only Felicity and the Blackwell sisters.
Secondly, the new characters were decidedly uninteresting. None of them were fleshed out enough for the reader (at least for this reader) to care about. The plot was meh. The execution of plot events was meh. The Final chapter, meant to see Alex riding off into the proverbial sunset was more than meh, it was boring.
This novel had a lot of proofing errors. See my notes if you are interested.
I could only find one summary of the novel that indicated the novel would be the series ender. That was on the Book Notification website, where I found this: "...The most recently released novel ... There are no upcoming novels for the Harbinger P.I. series."
I rated the novel three stars. Two of those stars were a gift, as I have greatly enjoyed the rest of the series. I am sorry to see the series end, but I'm even sorrier to see it go out on a sour note.
January 6, 2023
Great read!
Absolutely loved it!! This was worth the wait, the only bad thing is having to wait for the next one. Alec is working without his regular crew in this book, but finds a new one to work with. Hopefully the wait for the next book won't be as long.
Absolutely loved it!! This was worth the wait, the only bad thing is having to wait for the next one. Alec is working without his regular crew in this book, but finds a new one to work with. Hopefully the wait for the next book won't be as long.
January 17, 2023
Another Easy & Enjoyable Book in the Series
It says it all in the title.
A little rushed in places I felt but didn’t detract from the story too much.
Weird ending though … but more mystery to follow!
It says it all in the title.
A little rushed in places I felt but didn’t detract from the story too much.
Weird ending though … but more mystery to follow!
September 3, 2023
Good story but bad proofreading
Liked the story.
It doesn’t look like anyone gave it a good read before publishing. Seems as though spell check was used but, a number of times, there were words that just didn’t fit.
Liked the story.
It doesn’t look like anyone gave it a good read before publishing. Seems as though spell check was used but, a number of times, there were words that just didn’t fit.
January 2, 2023
Great read
Another great adventure with Harbinger PI. If you haven't already read this series, I highly recommend that you do!! Well worth the read.
Another great adventure with Harbinger PI. If you haven't already read this series, I highly recommend that you do!! Well worth the read.
April 4, 2023
This is a joke and a waste of time.
Half written plotlines, half a story with no ending.
It would seem the author cant wait to get rid of this series quickly enough.
Half written plotlines, half a story with no ending.
It would seem the author cant wait to get rid of this series quickly enough.
January 13, 2025
What a weird and pointless interlude. This is what happens when you write yourself into a corner and deus ex machina your way out of it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews