PREMONITIONS is an amazing debut from Jamie Schultz. It's got everything you could ask for in a novel that blends a high-stakes caper with supernatural abilities. It's a little bit of The Italian Job (minus the Mini Coopers, of course) mixed in with a lot of grit, unpredictable alliances, and some truly scary individuals.
The crew at the centre of PREMONITIONS consists of Karyn, Anna, Nail, and Tommy. They've been together for eight years, have a good group dynamic, and aim to misbehave. Karyn has a terrible gift. She's able to see into the future, particularly related to dangers, but it comes with a serious price: she doesn't always know if what she's seeing is real or a hallucination. It's a theoretically cool ability but the price that Karyn pays is devastatingly high. She needs to buy drugs called blind to keep her grounded. Like all drugs, Karyn is building an immunity and she needs more and more blind to keep herself sane. She's not the only one with a bit of hocus pocus: Tommy has "mad occult skills" that come in quite handy as well.
They've been a solid crew for ages and they get approached to move into the big leagues when they're approached by a representative for Enoch Sobell, a very scary man. He's one of those once-you're-in-you're-in-for-life-no-matter-what kind of bosses, a real gangland boss with more than a bit of magic at his disposal. Sobell has a true sense of menace, which I appreciated. A lot of times villains aren't actually that intimidating but Sobell definitely comes off like someone that shouldn't be messed with. Schultz has done an excellent job with all of the characters but I found Sobell to be my favourite, oddly enough, because he's very self-assured and calculating and aware. The fact that he's evil just makes him a bit more interesting to my mind. :) It's not to say that the other characters aren't well written but Sobell was just the most intriguing to me.
PREMONITIONS is a great debut and I'm so excited to see what else Schultz will cook up in future novels. He's crafted an amazing story and I'd definitely recommend this to people who like urban fantasy with a criminal twist.
This sounds very intriguing. I love The Italian Job. I'm actually debating whether I can still snag and read this right away, or if I'm too overburdened with books. It sounds like such a fun book, and I love when the villain turns out to be readers' favourite character.
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