Christopher Golden, The Myth Hunters

The Myth Hunters

Christopher Golden

Bantam, Feb 2006, $12.00, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0553383264

In wintry Maine, lawyer Oliver Bascombe suffers from cold feet, not just because he went outside in the snowy weather, but more because tomorrow he is to get married. He explains to his older sister Collette that he has doubts as he cannot think of one happily ever after marriage, though he further explains that he thinks he loves Julianna; yet wonders how can you be sure even if his fianc e is wonderful, intelligent and beautiful?

While reading The Sea Wolf to pass time, the outside storm smashes through his Victorian home door carrying something inside a vortex. Suddenly "the winter man" staggers from the middle of all that snow now inside Oliver's home. The newcomer pleads with his host to help him, even as he informs Oliver he is known as Jack Frost, and that he needs him to save his life from a deadly Myth Hunter from beyond the Veil. Ignoring his wedding, Oliver agrees. While Oliver enters the Veil on his quest to save the life of Jack Frost, his sister Collette investigates his disappearance and the murder of their father, with the help of Police Detective Ted Hallowell.

This terrific fantasy grips the audience, with the abrupt change from the calm of a reluctant groom pondering how he can be sure to when Frost busts through the door. The storyline is action-paced but plays out with two subplots: a fantasy quest beyond the Veil and a murder mystery disappearance on mundane earth. Both work because of the strong cast that makes believers out of readers that Jack Frost, THE MYTH HUNTERS and the land of the fae exist.