Baby Jane Paperback – Import, 6 May 2011

I bought this book ages ago and FINALLY made the time to read it. I really enjoyed it, especially the Native American part. It was intriguing to get a glimpse into this world. I'm Australian by birth and Aboriginal life and mythology is of interest to me. I found some aspects of the spirituality and story-telling to have close correlation with Aboriginal "Dreamtime". The mystery is really engaging, at times gripping, but always well-paced throughout. Loved the characters, especially Dylan and Tom (a transplanted Brit). I am not normally drawn to romantic books, and was a little hesitant at first, however the romance subplot is woven so naturally into the story, never giving way to cliche or idealism. Demers has impressed by the way she has cleverly developed the characters, set against a complex and layered background - for me this greatly enriched the total experience!.Looking forward to Demers' next book.

Baby Jane by M.A. Demers is a can't put down, page-turning mystery thriller that will have you up late at night, a little afraid to go to sleep and wishing it were tomorrow so you could pick it up and keep reading. And you'd stay up all night reading, but you want to drag it out, make it last, not end!Demers is an excellent writer who has a wonderful sense of humor, fabulous pacing, great character development and a taut-line story that grows ever more seductive as you are pulled into the web of not-so-coincidental happenings that beset the protaganist, Claire Dawson.Claire is a woman with hidden secrets of her own, which bring her into conflict with detective, Dylan Lewis, who at first looses his footing in the face of Claire's compelling magnetisim, a force that pulls him in deeper and deeper as he tries to balance his attraction for her and his duty as a police officer. His Native American roots speak to him of her secrets, and her soul.I recommend this book to anyone who loves a great read with overtones of foreign entities meshed seamlessly with real-life characters who have more than their own demons to survive in the face of a mystery of a death that will take the reader right back to the dark forces that were a hallmark of World War II...and beyond.I hope we hear a lot more from M.A. Demers, and I was thrilled to be able to download a Sample onto my iPad, and then buy the whole book in one fell swoop. Don't read the Sample if you're not ready to buy the full book because you WILL want to buy the book! The more self-published authors I read, the happier I am about the future of books! Sure there's plenty of dogs out there who can't write, but there's some really, really good writers to discover and enjoy. Demers should be in the top eschelon of your list. No I don't know her (or him---I'm thinking 'her') and yes I'll buy the next Demer book! Why didn't I give it a 5-star? Oh I could have, easily, but you have to knock me out to get that---the 4-stars just knocked me on my ass, and that's a great start!

Michele Demers has crafted a thoroughly enjoyable breakout first novel in "Baby Jane". Although the book hits a lot of familiar genre touchstones, it does so in a way that twists expectations -- and which ultimately weaves a strong character story that frankly left me emotionally drained in the end. The setup of the novel promises a tight marriage of police procedural and supernatural thriller, but the book is so much more than that. Most interesting for me was Demers' decision to weave the supernatural story in with a compelling First Nations magic-realistic tapestry, and to make full use of a broad palette of characters as she unfolds a narrative exploring both the best and worst of human desires.The mystery of "Baby Jane" is compelling enough in its own right. However, the book's biggest strength is the character story and the essential moral questions weaving through that character story -- How do we cope with a loss for which there is no forgiveness or forgetting? And how far would we go in the pursuit of vengeance for those unable to claim it for themselves?

Michele Demers has crafted a thoroughly enjoyable breakout first novel in "Baby Jane". Although the book hits a lot of familiar genre touchstones, it does so in a way that twists expectations -- and which ultimately weaves a strong character story that frankly left me emotionally drained in the end. The setup of the novel promises a tight marriage of police procedural and supernatural thriller, but the book is so much more than that. Most interesting for me was Demers' decision to weave the supernatural story in with a compelling First Nations magic-realistic tapestry, and to make full use of a broad palette of characters as she unfolds a narrative exploring both the best and worst of human desires.The mystery of "Baby Jane" is compelling enough in its own right. However, the book's biggest strength is the character story and the essential moral questions weaving through that character story -- How do we cope with a loss for which there is no forgiveness or forgetting? And how far would we go in the pursuit of vengeance for those unable to claim it for themselves?

This book is an excellent reading experience and I would like to recommend it to any and all to purchase it.All of Deemers' characters are both vibrant and real. Her attention to detail and character description makes them come alive and jump off the Kindle screen and into your dreams.The plot of the book begins with Claire Dawson trying to pick up the remains of her shattered life and establish a new one in her new house that she plans to remodel. Fate has a way of intervening and as she begins to demolish the old walls she has no way of knowing that she is demolishing the walls that she has built up around her to protect her damaged psyche from its previous traumas and hold her heart in captive mysery.As Claire tries to cope with the rapidly developing events that began to bombard her she finds herself drawn into a web of love and the conspiracy of NAZI evil that had crept into her quiet suburban locale and threatens to expose her innermost secrets and shame for the world to see.With the help of an elderly neighbor she begins to investigate the circumstances that surround the death of an innocent baby. The deeper she digs the closer she unwittingly comes to being damned by an evil demon - the Jackal.Her only other ally, Homicide Detective Dylan Lewis is put in an impossible situation between his duty as a police officer and his romantic attraction to the lovely and alluring Claire Dawson.Little does he realize that the struggle for his heart's affection will not only duel it out in the temporal plane, but also in a netherworld filled with mystical beings and personas.Reading this book had a natural flow and rhythm that made it one of those "hard to put down" stories that are so deliciously enjoyable to experience.