The Terminals: Spark

Absorbing action and well developed characters go a long way to compensate for an over-cluttered premise in this supernatural series launch. Stewart (Assured Destruction) establishes Lt. Col. Christine Kurzow as brittle, exhausted, and suicidal, after a moment’s hesitation cost the lives of 11 soldiers under her command. She is easily recruited by the alternately loathsome and overprotective General Aaron to work with the Terminals, a secret branch of military intelligence that euthanizes terminally ill recruits to seek information in the afterlife. A darkly quirky cast is well fleshed out, but Christine’s first case as a handler rambles into repetitive incoherence. Despite vivid rendering, the Gnostic afterlife into which Christine sends Charlie Harkman in pursuit of serial killer Hillar McCallum is described in a long-winded manner that distracts from the tension of the case, and grotesquely detailed descriptions of child torture and murder are disturbing but lacking in real emotional weight. Elements of a larger conspiracy suggest a sequel, which will hopefully combine the supernatural elements more effectively with the suspense. [em](BookLife) [/em]