While slow to get moving, this vampire tale unleashes plenty of paranomal suspense.
A suspicious murder in New Orleans ignites a supernatural, romantic thriller.
Viveca Moreau lived in a church-run orphanage after her parents died in a car accident. It wasn’t easy to grow up in New Orleans without a family to look after her: Once she was grabbed and nearly hurt in an alley by a man with a sinister air who “looked like a zombie.” Yet she was saved from harm by an even stranger man named Richard Ambrose. Viveca learned that Richard hailed from England, and she thought he “was as handsome as the princes in her fairy-tale books,” with dark hair that fell to his shoulders and eyes “of a color only God could have made.” But he disappears from her life (if not from her dreams) until, after years of hard work and a celibate existence, she becomes a homicide detective. Viveca is tough, but few things prepare her for investigating the murder of a college friend. The dead woman’s body has been drained of blood, and she has two bite wounds on her neck. All signs would point to murder by a vampire. But vampires aren’t real, are they? Viveca’s search for answers endangers her life, and as Richard again comes to her aid, she learns more about his past and realizes that she may have to save not just her life, but his. The story takes a slow path to its main events, first giving a glimpse of Richard’s past (a device perhaps influenced by Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire) and then of Viveca’s backstory, including her decision to study psychology in college and the stresses of her college job working in a print shop. Although these less-than-enticing details might have been explained more economically, once the blood starts spilling, the reader has a lot to consider. Will Viveca figure out what is going on in her beloved New Orleans? What will become of her developing relationship with Richard? Twists in the story are well placed, and even Viveca becomes surprised at where she might end up.
While slow to get moving, this vampire tale unleashes plenty of paranomal suspense.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-79606-109-3
Page Count: 274
Publisher: XlibrisUS
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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