A passel of bluesmen, both living and dead, and a thrice-born voodoo child combat demons and bad religion in horror writer Rodgers's hardcover debut. The premise has promise: Knit the lives of some celebrated blues travelersRobert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbellyinto the legends of Hoodoo Voodoo, which is regular voodoo's bloodlust, hell-and-damnation side. Toss in the devil girl; add a baffled male character who spends most of his time running around with a resurrectedjump back!Elvis Presley, now a pretender to the priesthood of Hoodoo Doctors (i.e., bluesmen), who've fallen on tough times (he's a filth-encrusted hobo when we meet him); and then send the entire unholy cast down to New Orleans, where a cataclysm of apocalyptic proportions is underway. The Big Easy is crumbling while demons run amok through the streets because Robert Johnson, in his vast vanity, sang a song called ``Judgment Day'' that put a crack in the ``Eye of the World.'' With the natural order of good and evil upset, Johnson is raised from the dead as a demi-being and given the opportunity to right the ills of his arrogance (no bluesman is supposed to sing ``Judgment Day'' until the Rapture at the end of the world). After a while, it begins to look as if devil child Lisa's mother, Emma, is Robert Johnson's daughter, a suggestive affinity that the narrative's slide-around time structure (``Greenville, Mississippi: 1938''; ``Hell: Timeless'') leaves unclear. Before the final battle, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Furry Lewis, and Tampa Red figure out what's up and rush in to join the party, enabling Rodgers to squeeze into his yarn nearly every notable bluesman who ever picked up a guitar. The delivery, in a rumbling Delta baritone, is convincing; the rest is overwrought and mostly unscary.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-681-10086-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
A sprightly new cozy series for Ross (Steamed Open, 2018, etc.) with plenty of entertaining characters, hidden clues, and a...
A Massachusetts retiree with a knack for discovering secrets lands a new gig.
Jane Darrowfield, who has a reputation among her friends as a problem-solver, is offered a job at Walden Spring, an adult community in Concord. But director Paul Peavey is evasive about what exactly the job involves. When Jane, at his suggestion, moves into an apartment pretending to be a potential long-term resident, she sees that Walden Spring has rival cliques, just like high school. Because she’s already met Evangeline Murray, a friend of a friend, Jane lunches with the artists. The leather-jacketed bad boys are led by Mike Witkowski and the popular preppies by Bill Finnerty, whose wife is in the Alzheimer’s unit. At the same time, Jane, who’s vetting men from a dating site for a friend, finds herself drawn to Harry Welch and agreeing to another date after years of wariness ever since her husband took off with another woman and most of their money, leaving her to climb back to financial security on her own. Jane soon discovers disturbing undercurrents at beautiful Walden Spring, especially between Bill and Mike. When Bill’s found beaten to death on the golf course, Jane’s ready to go home. Since Peavey and the police prefer that she stay, she decides to do a little snooping. She’s especially interested in the identity of a man she’s seen walking across the community’s golf course late at night. The case takes an unexpected turn with the discovery that Bill and Mary Finnerty were killed in a car crash 12 years ago. So who are the residents passing as Bill and Mary?
A sprightly new cozy series for Ross (Steamed Open, 2018, etc.) with plenty of entertaining characters, hidden clues, and a touch of romance.Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1994-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
Khong’s pithy observations and cynical humor round out a moving story that sparks empathy where you’d least expect it.
Former Lucky Peach executive editor Khong (All About Eggs: Everything We Know About the World’s Most Important Food, 2017) whisks up a heartfelt family dramedy in a debut novel that ruminates on love, loss, and memory.
Last June, Ruth Young was engaged and packing to move to a spacious apartment in Bernal Heights, San Francisco, when her fiance, Joel, broke the news that he wasn’t moving with her. Now 30, single, and still raw from the jarring breakup (and the gutting knowledge that Joel has a new, undoubtedly cooler, girlfriend), Ruth returns to her family’s home for the holidays. But instead of escaping her past, Ruth must face another obstacle upon arriving in Los Angeles—her father, esteemed history professor Howard Young, has Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s rapidly worsening. To alleviate her mother’s stress, Ruth quits her job in San Francisco—reluctantly joining “the unmarried and careerless boat”—and moves back in with her parents to care for her irascible father, who, notwithstanding his failing memory and bizarre behaviors (such as carrying a urinal cake in his pocket), insists he’s fine. Written in chronological vignettes spanning a year, Ruth’s vivid narration reads much like an intimate diary. In an effort to stave off her boredom at home, Ruth sleuths around her father’s unkempt office, digs for evidence of an extramarital affair, and even schemes with Howard’s former students to keep him under the illusion that he’s still actively teaching. As Howard’s memories fade, Ruth’s rise to the surface. Recollections of her father’s drinking problem and recent infidelity send her spiraling among resentment, disgust, and (unwittingly) compassion toward her parents. Ultimately, it’s Howard’s flaws that move Ruth to examine her own. Ruth and Howard are a hilarious father-daughter duo, at turns destructive and endearing, and entries from a notebook that Howard kept during Ruth’s childhood serve as an enriching back story to their deep bond.
Khong’s pithy observations and cynical humor round out a moving story that sparks empathy where you’d least expect it.Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-10916-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
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