If you’re unfamiliar with JP McLean’s award-winning supernatural crime novels, you should investigate her Dark Dreams series from the beginning. The first two books, Blood Mark and Ghost Mark, are narrated by a gnarly and lovable trio: Jane Walker, protagonist, dreamer, and bearer of magical marks; Jane’s boyfriend, Ethan Bryce, swaggering manager of the Riptide bar in Vancouver; and Jane’s loyal sidekick, former foster child, and high-class escort, Sadie Prescott. In Scorch Mark, the narration expands to include Sadie’s love interest, undercover Vancouver cop Dylan O’Brien.
In Blood Mark, we learn that the scarlet marks snaking around Jane’s body were gifted to her in an ancient Incan ritual to protect her from death. Now, McLean reveals that anyone who tries to kill Jane will end up dead themselves, and this threat has been proven true. Jane also suffers from lucid dreams in which she appears as a shadowy figure whose actions can affect history. In Ghost Mark, the blood marks transform, and she appears in her dreams dressed in whatever she wore when she fell asleep. Since she’s visible, you can imagine the problems this presents. Jane also discovers a vivid white “escape valve” on the back of her hand that rewinds a dream if she turns it counterclockwise and jumps her out of the dream if she moves it clockwise. The spectral marks remain in Scorch Mark, but in a clever stake-raising move, McLean introduces a villainous group of cowboy thugs who intend to use the marks for their own evil purposes. She also reveals much more about the old Peruvian families, the old silver offering bowl, and the Incan ritual itself.
McLean deftly intertwines three plots in Scorch Mark. In one, the psychologist who abducted Jane in Blood Mark goes on trial, and we await the verdict with bated breath. Will the defence attorneys create enough reasonable doubt for the jury to allow him and his accomplice to go free? And how will the attorneys twist Jane’s story? As is typical of courtroom drama, it’s a fist-squeezing, jaw-grinding experience for the reader. Meanwhile, Detective Dylan O’Brien is investigating “ghost guns” — a shipment of illegal firearms that have been produced using a three-D printer, and Jane is dreaming about the evil producers. Interspersed are Jane’s dangerous dreams, where she must act as a witness without being caught by the villains who are changing history. Tension anyone?
Wickedly clever, original, suspenseful, and action-packed, McLean’s impeccable writing and razor-sharp plotting will draw you in and keep you riveted. Scorch Mark is glamour and grit, spliced with a magical sense of the macabre, and wildly Canadian. Detailed, descriptive scenes of the Vancouver Law Courts will have you sitting tensely beside Jane as she watches her attacker from the gallery through thick, bulletproof glass. Then it’s a race across the country to a 12,000-acre Alberta ranch and a massive criminal takedown.
JP McLean is a bestselling author of urban fantasy and supernatural thrillers. She’s been the recipient of numerous honours for the Dark Dreams series and her six-book Gift Legacy series. Among them are a Global Book Award, CIBA and Page Turner Award, the National Indie Excellence Awards, the UK Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and the Whistler independent Book Awards.
Screenwriter Blake Snyder claims there are only ten types of stories, and I believe him. Given the vast amount of books and films being launched today, that makes it nigh impossible to create an original concept. But JP McLean’s Dark Dreams Series strikes me as something unique. The series begins with the multi-award-winning Blood Mark—a sexy noir crime novel starring a bold, intelligent superhero who seeks justice for her past transgressions despite her strange affliction.
In Blood Mark, we meet three series characters who take turns telling the story: twenty-four-year-old Jane who works at a plant nursery; her best friend Sadie who’s seduced by the kind of cash prostitution offers; and Jane’s love interest, the sexy biker and bar manager, Ethan Bryce. Their stories continue in Ghost Mark as does their love triangle—neither Sadie nor Ethan trust each other—which makes for tense, unending drama.
Abandoned at birth, Jane suffers from vivid blood-red marks that snake around her body, horrific nightmares, and trauma from growing up in the foster care system. She discovers early on that not only are her dreams about real people who are being stalked by a killer, but she’s appearing in these scenes as a shadowy figure.
Her blood marks, given to her in the womb during an ancient Inca ritual, are a form of protection. According to the Inca scholar, Jane is a Witness. As a Witness, she mustn’t act in any way that can change history. But how does one slip in and out of time without changing history? It’s virtually impossible, and one instinctive act of kindness haunts her through both books.
When Jane’s blood marks begin to disappear, she’s left feeling vulnerable. By the time we get to Ghost Mark, not only have Jane’s blood marks completely vanished, she’s now entering her dreams in a visibly translucent form—looking like a ghost, if you will. And to complicate things, people can now see her, and she appears in the dream scene wearing whatever she was wearing, or not wearing, when she fell asleep. After turning up naked in one dream, she starts sleeping fully dressed in jeans, motorcycle jacket, and boots with a hidden knife, in case her narcolepsy catches her unaware. Not only that, Jane discovers a vivid white “escape valve” on the back of her hand that “doesn’t just rewind a dream. When I trace the mark clockwise, it jumps me out of the dream entirely.”
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Unique concept? Absolutely.
McLean’s writing is as ingenious as her protagonist, ranging from grunge to snappy repartee to sophistication to laugh-out-loud snarks. My favourite line? “Careful, Ethan. You might just trip over your bravado and land on your ass.” Delivered by Sadie, of course. The plot twists as vividly as Jane’s blood marks. Intelligent stake-raising, mysterious dreams, and a tortuous ordeal in a freezing Alberta museum will have you flipping pages far into the night.
Life is bleak and gritty in this novel, and the Vancouver landscape honestly portrayed. Both Jane and Sadie are scarred by the foster care system. Jane discovers in a dream that Ethan’s scars happened another way. The antagonists are as manipulative, cruel, and evil as you could hope for in a crime novel, and Jane as tough a hero as it takes to put them in their place.
McLean’s first supernatural series, The Gift Legacy, included seven books. I’m hoping “dark dreams” continue to haunt the author, so she continues to write sequels.
Trust me. Ghost Mark is gripping. You won’t put it down till it’s done.
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