Shadow of the Witte Wieven - Book Review

Shadow of The Witte Wieven
by Debbie Peterson

What is it about:
Despite a contract on her head, lone Drug Enforcement Agent, Aliyana Montijo must ferret out a mole and stop the assassination of top DEA officials, as so ordered by the Colombian drug lord she seeks to take down. The task is a daunting one, for there is no one she can trust. No one that is, until she encounters a most unlikely ally.
Former seventeenth century captain of the Dutch West Indies Company, Wolfaert Dircksen Van Ness, now from a parallel dimension, encounters the beautiful agent during an unearthly storm in the Bermuda triangle. Drawn to the Spanish beauty he rescues, he pledges his assistance, despite her reluctance to accept either his help or his heart.
Can Wolf bridge both space and time to claim the woman he loves?

What did I think of it:
This is a nice read that could have been so much more.

I will confess I might have expected too much from this book. It has a Dutch sea captain as a lead character and the title refers to Dutch folklore, so I was hoping for a good ghostly read.

First disappointment: The Witte Wieven in the title didn't refer to ghostly women who lure unsuspecting travels to their death. Instead it was the name of Wolfaert's ship. Why he would name his ship after ghosts who only haunt moors and why he used the plural form (witte wieven = white women) is anyone's guess. (And while we're on the subject of names: Wolfaert is not pronounced Wolfate! Come on! There's an R in there!)

Anyway: I decided to not hold this disappointment against this book and tried to enjoy the actual story.

And it's not bad. It's quite a nice read actually, but there were some things missing. The characters were all a bit one dimensional. I never really got to know any of them. Such a shame as there were some really interesting characters if only they had gotten a bit more flesh on their bones, so to speak. This lack of depth also made the romance between Aliyana and Wolfaert fall flat for me.

I also think Peterson could have used Wolfaert's background and the parallel dimension stuff a bit more. Now he and his crew were just handy helpers for Aliyana to give her everything she needed. It even went so far that their help removed all possible hurdles, so there was no suspense or danger at all.

In the end this was a nice, uncomplicated story, with some really interesting ideas that could have been used better in my opinion.

Why should you read it:
It's a nicely written paranormal story.


Buy it here