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Stranger Danger by Michaelbrent Collings

Written Insomnia Press, 2020

ISBN: 979-8575116776

Availability: paperback, Kindle

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”

Stranger Danger is the third volume in the series featuring Legion, a teacher of justice and pain.  Like the unfortunate of the Biblical parable, Legion may have demons inside him and be quite crazy, in a figurative and literal sense.  But that doesn’t stop him from teaching people the error of their ways, in a bone-cracking, skin-pulping fashion.  If you’ve read the other two volumes (Stranger and Stranger Still) then you can’t miss this one, it’s the best one yet.  If you haven’t, this is still a great read.  Minus a couple small issues, it can still be read and understood as a stand-alone.  It’s every bit as good as Stranger Still (reviewed here ) but with the few minor tweaks made, this one is a notch above its predecessor.

As in the prior volumes, Stranger Danger runs two concurrent threads that start off separate, but eventually twine together.  Legion, a man with the ghosts of his brothers (Fire and Water) always with him and talking to him, stars in the first one.  He simply goes (or is led) to a place with a lot of wrongdoing, investigates the source of problems, and rectifies the wrongs inflicted on innocents, in an agonizing fashion.  This time, the site of mayhem is Tree City, a standard city with a ghetto overrun by four separate street gangs.  Legion’s story thread soon intersects with that of Candela Garcia, a cop who has been on the run from a psychopath for years, and has finally settled in Tree City, determined to make a better life for her son Chase, and the people of the city.  Her son makes the mistake of falling in with Wolf, the leader of one of the gangs.  Candela has to deal with the double trouble of helping her son and stopping the gangs from decimating the city.  Fortunately for her, Legion believes in stopping evil also, and the two of them use their opposing methods and beliefs to bring justice to the city.

Stranger Danger has the usual hallmarks of Collings’s writing in this series: extremely fast pace, excitement, and a mild touch of gore.  It’s the small touches that push this book above the previous one.  Fire and Water, the ghostly spirits in Legion’s head, are much better developed. Their advice does play a critical role in assisting Legion, but their constant verbal squabbling with each other also provides some occasional light-hearted moments.  The contrast between the two main characters also helps.  Candela is a straight-arrow, by-the-book cop who despises corruption and can’t be bought.  Legion understands right and wrong, but has no concept of laws when it comes to applying punishment.  Where Candela would make an arrest, Legion would break bones and crush pelvises.  It adds a nice dynamic to the story.

The character of Legion has also evolved.  Before, he was emotionless.  Now, at times, he actually experiences fear and (gasp!) happiness of a sort.  He isn’t flawless in his retribution either: one could make the case that a couple of the people Legion injures didn’t deserve it– they were just flunkies doing their legal jobs.  It’s different then the usual “good” or “evil” dynamic usually found in the series.  At the same time, Legion starts to question whether he should only punish the sinners, or maybe try helping out good people who don’t need correcting.   It all adds up to a more complex and interesting character.

Stranger Still is the best entry yet in a series that appears to have a ways to go.  Now, it’s just a matter of counting the days until the next one is released.  Recommended.

Contains:  violence, profanity, gore

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson