Jan Burke's The Messenger

Paranormal Romance Breaks Away From Irene Kelly Detective Series

Apr 14, 2009

Evaluating The Messenger requires accepting it as a paranormal romance rather than focusing on its differences from Jan Burke's previous detective novels.

An overused slang phrase points out that “It is what it is.” For readers of Jan Burke’s 2009 standalone novel, The Messenger, this truism serves as a warning. Those evaluating this work need to focus on what it is - a paranormal romance - rather than be distracted by what it is not - a detective novel like Burke's other works.

Synopsis

In the Los Angeles hospice room of her dying friend, Ron, 24-year-old heiress Amanda Clarke meets her mysterious neighbor Tyler Hawthorne, who is the same age. But Tyler is a very old twenty-four. Nearly two hundred years earlier, as he lay near death on the battlefield at Waterloo, Tyler made a bargain with the devil – Adrian deVille, in fact.

In return for immortality, Tyler became a Messenger, one who hears the last wishes of the dying and can communicate those thoughts to their loved ones. To help him with this task, Adrian gave Tyler Shade, his cemetery dog.

Amanda gradually overcomes her initial distrust of Tyler; but as the attraction between the two increases, so too does their imminent danger. After a long period of dormancy, Adrian has revived and now needs to recover the powers he had given Tyler. He will have to kill Tyler to accomplish this.

Evaluation

The Messenger meets the all the plot expectations held by readers of the paranormal romance. A brave and independent heroine is attracted to a stranger with supernatural powers, who travels with an animal familiar. A loathsome villain intervenes, threatening both their romance and their lives.

Burke herself offers the following humorous three line summation of the plot of The Messsenger:

Although Burke treats the storyline of The Messenger lightly, her characters are not without depth. The depth of her characterization varies, though. Amanda, the continually blushing heroine, is less fully realized than is Tyler. Burke does give her one unique quality, however. Amanda sees dead people. The ghosts of her parents, aunt and uncle visit her frequently.

Tyler, in contrast, shows greater self knowledge. When Amanda praises his courage in fighting with her despicable ex-boyfriend, Todd, Tyler points out that his own imperviousness makes it impossible for him to be courageous. “Ask yourself”, he says, “is there any courage where there is nothing to be overcome? Where there is no vulnerability?”

New Series Potential

Through her introduction of the character Colby, Burke has given herself the opportunity to develop this standalone novel into its own series, much as Jonathan Kellerman has done in True Detectives. Tyler describes his supernatural friend Colby as “a creature completely devoted to pleasure and mischief.” Burke writes that Colby is “in trouble,” and leaves the nature of the trouble open for future development.

About the Author

Jan Burke lives in Southern California with her husband Tim and their two dogs, Cappy and Britches. Her many writing awards include the Edgar for Best Novel from Mystery Writers of America and the Agatha Award from Malice Domestic. She is the founder of the Crime Lab Project, a non-profit organization aimed at increasing public awareness of problems facing forensic science agencies, including crime labs and coroner and medical examiners offices, and at increasing support for forensic science research.

Burke’s Other Works

Burke is best known for her Irene Kelly series, featuring reporter Irene Kelly and her police detective husband, Frank Harriman. Burke takes an unusual approach to this series, in which events do not occur in a chronological sequence. For instance, the series debut novel, Good Night Irene, (1993) begins with Irene’s sorrow over the recent death of O’Connor, her journalistic mentor. Nine volumes later, in Bloodlines (2005), O’Connor appears as a young reporter.

Burke has also written one series spinoff, Flight (2001), one other standalone novel, Nine (2002) and a short story collection, 18 (2002).

The copyright of the article Jan Burke's The Messenger in Romance Fiction is owned by Carol Thomas. Permission to republish Jan Burke's The Messenger in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.