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4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm Mall Shook Up, Mar 13 2002
When eerie events at the Black Oak Mall create a vacancy in the security guards, ex-cop Andy Westin shows up. Andy is a good guy, who has left the L.A. Police force because of the corruption and the violence. Being a mall guard doesn't pay a lot, but he is looking forward to being more at peace than he has in a long time. What Andy doesn't know is that the Mall is sitting right on top of an entrance to Faerie and his troubles are just about to begin.Judy Cohen is a shop owner at the mall. She runs a little place called 'BellBookand' which, naturally, is a candle store. Business isn't great, but Judy is a positive thinker, and besides, she is also a practicing witch. Andy meets Judy, they really like each other, but Andy gets the whim-whams every time Judy mentions witchcraft. He also gets discomfited when little critters start to appear and disappear at the mall and when a ghost driven skateboard takes a shot at him. He really gets uptight when a beautiful elf woman appears and lays a spell on him. Even more so when Judy removes the spell and gives the elf a rash. Kemper Cogswell owns the mall and is determined to sell it. He has visions of running for office and needs the profits from the mall to fund his race. He has a Japanese firm almost ready to buy the Mall, but is beginning to realize that these conservative clients may find mysterious rats that eat plastic coat hangers a little too strange. Kemper issues orders that the weird has to stop and Andy finds himself messing with elves, brownies, drug dealers, air guitarists, thieves, a crazy news reporter, and even an ice troll. Even with Judy helping, this is not the job of his dreams. Rick Cook has been writing light fantasy for some time now, and has a solid reputation. While he is no Tom Holt or Terry Pratchett, he is a good writer with the ability to pull off a nifty sight gag and the occasional over the top pun (this book's masterpiece, outside of the title, is 'I think it was a chocolate covered brownie"). Humor is a precious commodity at any time, and Rick Cook adds to the world's balance with a quirky story of magic that is half in the world and half out of it. Just avoid the fur safe and stay out of the way of the skateboards.
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