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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=The Illustrated Mind of Mike Reeves
|sort=The Illustrated Mind of Mike Reeves
|author=Asa Jones
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=A raunchy fantasy story of a man who dabbles in the darker arts and finds himself in very real danger. Asa Jones was kind enough to [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Malcolm Fawbert and Asa Jones|talk to us]].
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=290
|publisher=Eloquent Books
|date=November 2009
|isbn=978-1606939055
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>160693905X</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=160693905X|aznus=<amazonus>160693905X</amazonus>
}}
Mike Reeves doesn't have his troubles to seek. His wife was brutally raped some four or five years ago and whilst she might seem to be recovered she cannot stand to be touched by a man – any man, Mike included. Quite suddenly Mike was alone, in every way – until he found himself drawn to the darker arts and began to dabble in Tarot, the Runes and I Ching. He's guided by two spirits. Sean is a wise and benevolent older man and Debbie, well she… isn't. She's the one who satisfies Mike's sexual needs. If that's all sounding rather good, then hesitate a moment, for with the good comes the bad and the bad is in the form of Tony a (very) real-life gangster who's been doing his own dabbling in the spirit world. When their worlds clash Mike has a problem which could well be more than he can handle.
Some books defy classification and this is one of them. It's a thriller, in every sense of the word and there are times when you will have to remind yourself to breathe because the pace is moving so quickly and you don't quite know how Mike's going to get himself and the others who are dragged into his life , willingly or otherwise , out of the latest fix. It's fantasy with a spirit world that's active, mobile and ''very'' versatile – and it's raunchy. Very raunchy.
Normally, when I read a book with such a variety of themes I wonder if the author had really made up his mind what he was aiming for and threw everything into the mix, but Asa Jones manages to avoid that trap. There's sufficient background to the darker arts to make the fantasy elements believable but without going over the top and the book certainly seems to have been written from knowledge rather than research.
The male characters are good and come of off the page well. Tony, particularly, had an air of menace which nearly set fire to the book. I was less certain about the women, who tended to blend into each other and occasionally I had to stop to work out who Rosie, Maddi, Monica and Christine were. Only Debbie really seemed to have a vice of her own! This is a small point though in an otherwise enjoyable book.
I'd like to thank the author for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
{{interviewtext|author=Malcolm Fawbert and Asa Jones}} {{amazontext|amazon=160693905X}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=7628723160693905X}}
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[[Category:General Fiction]]
