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Title: Last Chants: A Willa Jansson Mystery by Lia Matera ISBN: 0-671-88096-9 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: June, 1997 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99

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Average Customer Rating: 3.4

Rating: 3
Summary: Shows promise
Comment: It is always difficult to do justice to a book and author when you start in the middle of an established series. (On the other hand, shouldn't each book in a series be able to stand on its own?) This intallment obviously draws on characters and situations more thoroughly developed in earlier stories. So I really didn't feel I knew enough about the characters, just from this book alone, to empathise with their predicament and understand their motivations. Also, the shamanic/Pan theme was quite over-emphasised and distracting and not too well juxtaposed with the other techno theme. However, the Willa Jansson character has intrigued me sufficiently to want to explore at least one more of the books in this series.

Rating: 3
Summary: altered states
Comment: reluctant lawyer, willa jansson, is diverted from her first day at her new job when she spots one of her parents' septuagenarian friends weilding a gun on a busy downtown sidewalk. as usual the theme is off-beat:mysticism meets cybernetics. more detective than legal fiction.

Rating: 5
Summary: well-written, suspenseful and entertaining
Comment: to really appreciate this novel, you need to read matera's previous willa jansson mysteries. otherwise, the dynamic between willa and the other key characters just don't ring true. willa knows her parent's old friend arthur kenna couldn't possibly have done anything to hurt any one and so when she sees him waving a gun on the street, she impulsively decides to pretend to be his hostage in hopes of keeping the police at bay until she can figure out what's going on. it turns out that her instincts are correct - a passerby thrust the gun into arthur's hand. later that same morning, while willa and arthur are still hiding out, a body turns up, and the police begin to search for arthur in earnest. thus begins the latest of willa jansson's adventures... matera has thrown in a romantic mountain cabin owned by willa's ex-boyfriend edward hershey, as well as an intriguingly suspicious computer software team who'd been working with the victim. there are some humorous touches, such as the people who live in the forest where willa and arthur are hiiding out. there are a few more strings than is entirely necessary to weave a good mystery, but on the whole this is a very good book.