The Star Tablet

ROC (2006)
ISBN:9780451460608
$12.95
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Reviewed by Alisa Krasnostein, May 2007

The Star Tablet is the third book in an ongoing series following Jack Stein, Psychic Investigator. Jack's ward, Billie, has been studying archaeology with Professor Antille at the University of Balance City in Utrecht. Specifically, they were working on understanding markings on the star tablet, an alien artefact presumably uncovered in the previous book in this series. They were working on the tablet, that is, until they both went missing. Jack sets off on an investigation to find them.

Not having read the two previous books, I struggled to engage with both the story and the character of Jack Stein. What was missing, for me, was an explanation and the context of Jack's relationship with Billie. Very little of this is provided and this meant I was unable to empathise with Jack's situation. I never felt I clearly understood why Jack would travel so far to find her. I assume that Billie going missing would have more of an impact for those readers who have followed the series. For those picking up the book as a stand alone volume, the relationship between Billie and Jack felt too devoid of emotion to be able to invest in the overall outcome.

I found the beginning of this book to be clunky and awkward with far too much info dumping. Despite this, I found much of the information to be irrelevant to the storytelling. Much of it was scene description and world building. Very little introduced the new reader to Jack and his story. I also had issues with the premise – Jack Stein is a psychic investigator – that's an amusing twist on the traditional PI detective books. However, I didn't find a situation in this book where Jack's psychic abilities actually worked to give him information to solve the mystery. It seemed as though pretty much all the detecting was done the old-fashioned way.

Whilst the premise looked interesting enough, the plot was very simple. Concentrating on Jack and his experience, there is but the one storyline to follow. The reader watches as Jack moves through the plot from point A to B and finally arriving at C. I must be honest that by the time the plot came to the big reveal, I really wasn't interested enough (in either the characters or the mystery) to pay attention.

Finally, what really annoyed me about this book was the unnecessary and over detailed scenery descriptions. The first several chapters seem to be dedicated to giving the reader an accurate description of every view possible as Jack arrives at Utrecht and sorts out his accommodation. I found this disorienting as I would have preferred these chapters were spent filling me in on who Jack was and why I cared about him. Very little of this book is spent in character development or indeed emotion. Much more was spent telling the reader what the view was outside the window and exactly where pot plants were in the room Jack walks through. I felt the space spent world building was to the detriment of good story telling.

Overall coming into this series at Book 3 is not recommended. It was too difficult to engage with and care about any of the characters. Further, the plot seemed too linear and shallow to be a really good detective novel.