A high-altitude thriller, this novel is a great summer read for more than the usual reasons.
When the corpse of a decapitated horse is found strung from the support tower of a hydroelectric plant high up in the French Pyrenees, suspicion naturally turns to a nearby high-security institution that houses the worst of the worst serial killers.
Called from Toulouse to investigate, Commandant Martin Servaz does indeed match DNA found on the horse to one of the inmates of the Wargnier Institute, where, to discourage misbehavior, shock treatment is used as punishment. Éric Lombard, the superwealthy owner of the plant—and former owner of the prized horse—has no idea who might have it in for him. And potential witnesses to the atrocity are denying they heard or saw anything unusual. When a human body is found hanging from the bridge, the game is on for the placid Servaz and attractive police captain Irène Ziegler. Meanwhile, a fledgling psychiatrist, Diane Berg, is beginning an ill-advised stay at the institute to study the criminally insane. Soon enough, she has her hands full with the brilliant, Hannibal Lector–like Julian Hirtmann, the cagiest and most dangerous of subjects. The story also features a rash of teenage suicides and the killing of a homeless man back in Toulouse. Minier, who grew up in the foothills of the Pyrenees, exploits the unusual setting exceptionally well. While his first novel is derivative of sources ranging from classic horror films to Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs, it's such an absorbing effort that you forgive its debts.
A high-altitude thriller, this novel is a great summer read for more than the usual reasons.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-04553-9
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Tudor came out swinging with Chalk Man (2018), but this one puts her firmly on the map. Not to be missed.
When Joe Thorne takes a teaching job in the small English village of his youth, he soon realizes the darkness he's tried to forget certainly hasn’t forgotten him.
Returning to the tiny mining village of Arnhill wasn’t English teacher Joe Thorne’s first choice, and teaching at Arnhill Academy, which he attended as a boy, is the furthest thing from a dream job. But his choices are limited. A gambling problem has put him in debt to a man who will break his kneecaps, or worse, if he doesn’t get his money. Well, actually, he has a frightening woman named Gloria on hand to do that for him, and she’s got her eye on Joe. But Joe has a plan. He moves into a cottage where an Arnhill teacher recently killed her young son and then herself, writing “NOT MY SON” in blood on the wall. But beggars can’t be choosers, and Joe tries to settle in at Arnhill, where it’s soon obvious that his old foes never left, and they don’t want him in their village. Stephen Hurst, a bully Joe ran with as a kid, has a hold on the town, and his son Jeremy, an Arnhill student, is a chip off the old block. Unfortunately, Stephen shares a secret with Joe that involves Joe’s beloved sister, Annie, who disappeared when she was 8 and was very different when she returned. The events leading up to her death soon after were very strange indeed, and everything leads back to a mine shaft that is the source of ghost stories and rumors that have persisted for hundreds of years. The past and present are about to collide in chilling fashion. With Joe, Tudor avoids going the way of the unreliable narrator: He doesn’t lie to readers, even if he lies to others, and he has a snarky sense of humor that adds levity. Tudor maintains a tone of creeping dread throughout the book, of something lingering always in the background, coyly hiding its face while whispering promises of very bad things to come. In the last quarter, however, she goes for broke with outright horror, giving readers an effective jolt of adrenaline that will carry them all the way to the terrifying conclusion. Readers won’t know what hit them.
Tudor came out swinging with Chalk Man (2018), but this one puts her firmly on the map. Not to be missed.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6101-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Fluke lavishes so much attention on the mechanics of location shooting that there’s scant time for the murder, much less its...
Even the murder of its cranky director can’t stop the filming of Crisis in Cherrywood or halt the snooping of Lake Eden’s premier baker.
Just when Hannah Swenson’s decided to accept neither of the marriage proposals tendered at the end of Peach Cobbler Murder (2005)—turning down both sweet-tempered dentist Norman Rhoades and hot-blooded lawman Mike Kingston—another suitor turns up. Her old college classmate Ross Barton, now a Hollywood producer who thinks Lake Eden is just the spot to shoot his new movie, recruits Hannah’s mom Delores as set designer, her younger sister Michelle as production assistant and her middle sister Andrea as an extra. He even casts Andrea’s five-year-old, Tracey, to play heroine Lynne Larchmont as a child and presses Hannah’s cat Moishe into service as her childhood pet. For Hannah he reserves the role of constant companion, escorting her to dinner, inviting her to view the dailies and letting her watch the filming—which gives her a front-row seat as Dean Lawrence, instructing leading man Anson Burke on how to use a prop pistol, shoots himself fatally instead. Since Mike has made it clear to Hannah that she must leave investigating to the professionals, she can’t investigate, she can only snoop—much to the delight of Andrea, Norman and Lake Edenites everywhere.
Fluke lavishes so much attention on the mechanics of location shooting that there’s scant time for the murder, much less its solution.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7582-0294-6
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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