A scary but sensitive story that never loses its compassion for real-life horrors.
A Native American paranormal investigator finds herself caught up in a series of hauntings that may include her dead sister.
One of the most refreshing things about this novel is Wurth’s refusal to waste time on extreme worldbuilding or overly complicated stage-setting. She jumps headfirst into the action involving paranormal investigator Olivia Becente, whose clients are being plagued by a series of hauntings. Yes, there is an afterlife, and from it arise spirits demanding the attention of the living. Are they angry? Vengeful? Trying to impart a vital message that shouldn’t be ignored? Olivia, who lives and works with Alejandro, her gay best friend, isn’t sure of their motives. But she quickly comes to understand that her sister, Naiche, who died under shocking circumstances in a Denver hotel room several years earlier, is somehow involved in the hauntings. A woman dies by suicide in that room every few years, and possibly involved in this mysterious, bloody manifestation are a suspicious cult, Olivia’s abusive ex, and a local journalist who seems determined to paint Olivia as a fraud. Wurth also weaves in the history of the Sand Creek Massacre, an 1864 atrocity in which U.S. troops murdered more than 200 Cheyenne and Arapahoe people, mostly women, children, and the elderly. She handles the memories of the massacre interspersed through Olivia’s narrative with great sensitivity, and her portrayal of Olivia’s grief, guilt, and regret over her sister’s death rings painfully true. The novel does grow slightly convoluted, and a few developments, like the sudden arrest of Olivia’s ghost-sleuthing partner, are more difficult to believe than the presence of the furious ghosts. But Wurth makes up for any missteps with her compassion and her insistence on the importance of families, whether they’re related by blood or not.
A scary but sensitive story that never loses its compassion for real-life horrors.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781250908599
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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