The plot keeps moving with plenty of effective surprises, and the final chapters successfully navigate to an even darker...
The plot twists can get a little confusing in the latest high-tech sci-fi thriller from Glynn (The Dark Fields, 2001, etc.). But at least readers will never be quite as confused as Danny Lynch, the story’s unlucky not-quite hero.
From the start, Danny is a mess: he’s recently back from Afghanistan where he worked a low-level job in food services for the defense contractor Gideon Logistics. He’s traumatized by his memories of witnessing a horrific act of violence for which Gideon officials were to blame; now their lawyers want to shut him up. But instead of making threats, they set him up with another, more desirable kitchen job in a high-end restaurant. The situation quickly turns strange when Danny notices that one of the restaurant’s regular patrons looks exactly like him. He investigates online and finds that his double is Teddy Trager, a visionary investor and founder of Paradime Capital. Before long he’s fully obsessed with Teddy—stalking him through New York, posing as him at public events, even managing to sleep with his girlfriend. Danny’s own girlfriend, Kate, already mad at him for not having the courage to blow the whistle on Gideon, now fears he’s losing his marbles. Until Danny and Teddy have their one face-to-face encounter, the story maintains a deliciously creepy atmosphere, with dark humor as Danny manages to sneak into Teddy’s life.
The plot keeps moving with plenty of effective surprises, and the final chapters successfully navigate to an even darker tone. So the not-quite-resolved ending seems perfectly appropriate, even if you have to read it over to make sense of it.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-06182-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Picador
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Certainly not for all readers, but anyone interested in seeing William Peter Blatty’s infamous The Exorcist (1971) by way of...
The wonder of friendship proves to be stronger than the power of Christ when an ancient demon possesses a teenage girl.
Hendrix was outrageously inventive with his debut novel (Horrorstör, 2014) and continues his winning streak with a nostalgic (if blood-soaked) horror story to warm the hearts of Gen Xers. “The exorcist is dead,” Hendrix writes in the very first line of the novel, as a middle-aged divorcée named Abby Rivers reflects back on the friendship that defined her life. In flashbacks, Abby meets her best friend, Gretchen Lang, at her 10th birthday party in 1982, forever cementing their comradeship. The bulk of the novel is set in 1988, and it’s an unabashed love letter to big hair, heavy metal, and all the pop-culture trappings of the era, complete with chapter titles ripped from songs all the way from “Don’t You Forget About Me” to “And She Was.” Things go sideways when Abby, Gretchen, and two friends venture off to a cabin in the woods (as happens) to experiment with LSD. After Gretchen disappears for a night, she returns a changed girl. Hendrix walks a precipitously fine line in his portrayal, leaving the story open to doubt whether Gretchen is really possessed or has simply fallen prey to the vanities and duplicities that high school sometimes inspires. He also ferociously captures the frustrations of adolescence as Abby seeks adult help in her plight and is relentlessly dismissed by her elders. She finally finds a hero in Brother Lemon, a member of a Christian boy band, the Lemon Brothers Faith and Fitness Show, who agrees to help her. When Abby’s demon finally shows its true colors in the book’s denouement, it’s not only a spectacularly grotesque and profane depiction of exorcism, but counterintuitively a truly inspiring portrayal of the resilience of friendship.
Certainly not for all readers, but anyone interested in seeing William Peter Blatty’s infamous The Exorcist (1971) by way of Heathers shouldn’t miss it.Pub Date: May 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59474-862-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Irresistible high-wire melodrama, though it’s easy to see why D.D. observes, “I think we just fell into a Lifetime movie.”
Like her fifth case (Love You More, 2011, etc.), Boston PD Det. Sgt. D.D. Warren’s sixth subordinates her to another woman just as strong as she is, and a lot more interesting.
Back in high school, Randi Menke, Jackie Knowles and Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant were the Three Musketeers, inseparable buddies who’d do anything for each other. Now Randi and Jackie are dead, strangled a year apart on Jan. 21. So as this Jan. 21 approaches, Charlie is naturally terrified that her turn is coming. Accosting D.D. at a crime scene, she announces that she’s marked for death, describes how she’s gone on the run from her job as a small-town police dispatcher and begs her to solve her murder, still several days away. Underlining her peril is a note left at the scene: “Everyone has to die sometime. Be brave.” But something about Charlie’s story doesn’t add up. If she’s so scared that she’s pulled up stakes and high-tailed it to the big city, why hasn’t she changed her name? Instead of being a victim, could she be the vigilante killer of pedophiles D.D.’s squad has been hunting? Or is she both killer and victim? Alternating between the third-person narration of D.D.’s investigation and Charlie’s feverish first-person narrative, and throwing in more subplots showing abused women fighting their abusers, Gardner brings the ingredients to a rolling boil until she’s finally cut Charlie off from her police defenders, disarmed her and backed her into a corner awaiting her killer.
Irresistible high-wire melodrama, though it’s easy to see why D.D. observes, “I think we just fell into a Lifetime movie.”Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-525-95276-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
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