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Pub date June 21 2020

ISBN 979-8655876866

Price $7.99 (USD) Kindle edition

Johnston’s stellar latest installment in A Peter Straw, Third Eye Mystery series masterfully blends together elements of sci-fi, cozy mystery, and metaphysical fiction. When Peter Straw, the blind detective, assisted by his intellectually-augmented seeing eye dog Watson is invited to work with the RCMP and the Integrated North America Space force to solve two connected mysteries, he didn’t think much of the cases. But with an international catastrophe threatening to reopen the world to a terrible dark age, Peter knows he must use all his detective skills if he wants to avert the danger.  Johnston’s vision of the futuristic world is populated by compelling, fully realized characters and immediately feels real, all the more so for its believability. It is a world in which humanity has made significant advancement in the fields of high-tech, AI, augmented reality, genetic enhancements, and interstellar travel and colonialism, but the issues, such as race, class inequality, division between rich and poor still exist. Johnston is an expert at characterization: Peter and Watson make for an endearing pair. The villains, including the inhuman ones are highly intimidating. The mystery at the heart of the story is expertly executed, and the compelling plot, fueled by a mounting sense of tension and suspense, keeps readers engrossed to the very end. An engrossing novel with unusual emotional depth and atmospheric setting that lovers of finely constructed cozies won’t want to miss.

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