Product Description

MINUET JAMES is a woman who committed a wrong she’s trying hard to forget. But there’s a man out there – the mysterious Mr. X – who knows her guilty secret. Whoever he is, Minuet doesn’t want to meet him. But she’s run out of choices. Someone is putting the squeeze on her Paranormal Services Agency. When she’s framed for a triple murder she didn’t commit, Minuet has no choice but to agree to help a hostile police liaison, Alexander Ferguson, hunt down this Mr. X. She’s a goat on a string, staked out for the tiger, with both the law and a vengeful client she didn’t ask for holding her leash. She knows only too well what happens to the bait when the tiger arrives. However, Minuet just might have a surprise or two up her sleeve, even for the tiger...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1653586 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 290 pages

About the Author
Danielle Parker has been a fan of the speculative fiction and mystery genres since she was a teenager reading illicit Andre Norton, A.E. van Vogt, and C.L. Moore paperbacks by flashlight on do-your-homework school nights. She has published a number of short stories and won several writing contests. She is hard at work on a second Minuet James adventure, titled The Nihilistic Mirror. She loves to hear from fans and may be contacted at: Danielle_Parker@hotmail.com

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Mix
As other reviewers have commented, THE INFINITE INSTANT is a well done mix of Raymond Chandler and Andre Norton. Minuet James, mutant mind reader (AKA Paranormal) owns Minuet James Paranormal Services Agency. As a one-person investigative agency, she's making enough to survive, but she's not getting rich. A rich, Harvard educated member of a powerful crime family is in love with her, and she's attracted and repelled at the same time.

Then, everything crashes in at once. Her digital assistant Miss Bateman is showing signs of enhanced intelligence, some powerful people are blackballing her agency, and then she is framed for a triple murder.

This tightly written very noir novel moves from Minneapolis to the glitter of Las Vegas, and in the end ties up many of the loose ends in a logical little ball. And one of the questions answered is "Where did this paranormal power come from?" The answer will surprise you as much as it does Minuet.

I read this book right through and found it gritty but enjoyable. And I'm looking forward to the sequel.

A classic P.I. story with a twist
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (11/08)

You know the usual story - there's this tough-as-nails P.I. with a really, really sharp secretary, dealing with a good-looking, but rather dangerous character, who could be either a friend or an enemy, depending on the circumstances. There are villains galore and dangers untold - yet it all ends well. Danielle L. Parker's "The Infinite Instant" follows this model closely, but for the fact that everything has a great twist to it...

Yes, the P.I. is tough-as-nails, but she's female and super-gifted at that. The secretary rocks, but she's not alive - she's a cyberbot. The good-looking character happens to be male - and he'll keep surprising you throughout the story. The villains are more fun than ever; and scarier as well. And the dangers are beyond your imagination.

This was an incredibly fresh and exciting book, written with great eye for detail, some truly smashing dialogue and a couple of very astute observations about humankind. The moral dilemmas Minuet James faces, and the truths she's forced to face, make this more than just an amusing read. I've enjoyed every moment of it, although anything even remotely sci-fi related is usually not high on my reading list. Everything about this book was fun, from the not-so-distant-future setting and the plot to the superbly drawn characters. I do hope Minuet James returns to us in a new book quickly, and I would certainly love to know what Miss Bateman was up to during her absence!!!

Highly recommended to all lovers of sci-fi, mysteries, spicy love stories and just plain good writing, this is a book you will not want to miss. "The Infinite Instant" by Danielle L. Parker would also make for a swell gift for anybody not afraid of trying a book not in their usual genre.

Infinite Instant review
Can you successfully mix two disparate genres in the same book, and get away with it? If your name is Danielle Parker, then the answer is a resounding YES. Her excellent debut novel, The Infinite Instant, is the child of a dangerous liaison between a noir detective pulp and a science fiction novel.
Any noir detective story requires a tough Private Investigator and a leggy Damsel-In-Distress, and the hard-working Miss Minuet James plays both roles at once. Minuet uses her telepathic talent to run a small private detective agency, until someone starts persuading her clients that they might suffer from a drastic decline in health should they continue to employ her. And the detective agency is really all she has, since the day that the San Andreas fault line decided to rewrite the legend of Atlantis, and cast almost all of California in the title role.
Minuet is a flawed heroine with a guilty little secret. A crime she committed in the shattered ruins of California has come back to haunt her. Somebody knows what she did, and that somebody is more than just another telepath. That somebody is an X, able to reach out to other minds, and snuff them out like a candle in a hurricane.
As the body count rises, suspicion falls heavily upon Minuet, leaving her with quite a few bruises. And that's just the start of her troubles. Very quickly, She finds her unwilling self on the wrong side of the law, on the wrong side of the Mob, and on the wrong side of the Navigator starship monopoly. All of them have scores to settle with the mystery X, and they expect Minuet to do their dirty work for them.
And the stakes just keep on rising. The mystery X turns out to be a threat to humanity on more than just a personal level.
Throughout the book, Minuet questions whether or not her power disqualifies her from active membership of the human race, but she's still determined to hold on to her humanity. She is led into temptation, and chooses to deliver herself from evil.
I have to say that I loved the ending of the book -- though Minuet still doubts that she deserves it, she has well and truly found redemption.