Plenty of suspense and chills to satisfy occult-horror fans.
Four and a half suspenseful, frightening tales in one.
Carter Weston is a student at Miskatonic University—imagine Harvard’s dark sister—when his advisor charges him with a quest to find a powerful dark tome. When Carter arrives at a tavern in Anchorhead during a heavy winter storm, he joins a table of four men who seem, unnervingly, to be waiting for him. At this point, the novel’s linear story line is abandoned. Each of the men, Jack, Daniel, William and Captain Jonathan Gray, has a tale to tell that’s related to the occult—and obliquely to the book Carter is charged to find. Most of the novel is spent recounting these tales, and Talley returns to the present only long enough to comment on the state of the storm. It only becomes clear in chapter three, with the mention of stagecoaches, that the book is set in the past—a reader unfamiliar with the genre might be confused. Even for the familiar reader, the time period is ambiguous. The four men’s stories, along with Carter’s, span nearly 100 years, but no dates are mentioned and there are instances of anachronism throughout. All of the stories are told in the same voice, and the storytellers themselves are painted nearly identically, as good-natured, frightened young men who are unwilling players in mankind’s struggle against a demonic tide. Still, Talley is wonderful at crafting suspense, and each sub-story pays homage to a high theme of occult horror: the spirit-creature in the woods, the unholy monastery and the insane asylum with dark secrets, respectively. Captain Grey and Carter’s stories are linked, and together they’re Talley’s version of a cursed treasure tale.
Plenty of suspense and chills to satisfy occult-horror fans.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1936564149
Page Count: 259
Publisher: JournalStone
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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