Indie review of Texas-based fantasy<\/p>\n

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East Texas, specifically the areas around Mount Pleasant and Longview, might not be your first choices for fantasy settings in a darkly toned, paranormal romance tale about a witch and an emergency room physician.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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But in The Janus Witch<\/em>, Mount Pleasant novelist Michael Scott Clifton uncorks a clever and entertaining tale that unfolds within a region he knows well.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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In The Janus Witch<\/em>,<\/span> one member of a murderous witches\u2019 coven somehow plunges into another realm (contemporary East Texas) while being pursued by witch hunters. Tressalayne is seriously injured when she tumbles through tree branches and hits the ground, and she is left temporarily without memory of her violent, paranormal past.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Tressalayne happens to be beautiful, as well, a fact noted immediately by Dr. Lucas Beckett, her attending physician at Good Shepard General Hospital. It doesn\u2019t take the handsome young bachelor very long to start paying more attention to her than is medically necessary.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Soon, Lucas and Tressalayne fall in love. But their happiness quickly is threatened by some truly despicable characters, including the hospital\u2019s chief financial officer, Mason Crick; his \u201cpersonal assistant\u201d Sam Lunker, who serves as a 300-pound enforcer for Crick\u2019s schemes, assaults and drug deals; Morganna, the leader of Tressalayne\u2019s deadly witches\u2019 coven; and Robert Lockstone, a witch hunter who can move between paranormal and normal realms.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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To avoid giving away here how the story plays out, it\u2019s sufficient to say that Tressalayne eventually is made aware both of her deadly past and the very real threats she now poses to Lucas\u2019s survival. So hard choices must be made. And yes, there will be blood. But, can love triumph over evil when those two realms collide?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Janus, by the way, is a complex god of ancient Rome who is often is depicted with two faces, one looking to the future and the other looking back to the past. In Clifton\u2019s book, Tressalayne may be a witch with violent past, but love is still possible in her future.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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But Clifton keeps his story moving and sticks to his stated goal of including \u201caspects of all the genres he enjoys . . . fast-paced action, adventure, mystery, fantasy, and romance\/ relationships\u201d in his books.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Michael Scott Clifton\u2019s previous novel is The Treasure Hunt Club<\/em>, which features some East Texas settings and explores how people can risk giving up what truly is valuable in their lives while seeking and finding lost treasures. His next book, The Conquest of the Veil, also has some East Texas settings, as well as settings in other times and locales. It is scheduled for release in March 2019 as book one in a fantasy series and recently was an East Texas Writers Guild First Chapter finalist.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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