A page-turner with plenty of intelligence and heart; readers will want more.
Vincenti (The Santero, 2014) returns with a second entry in his Wallace Krieg series of hard-boiled, character-driven mystery novels.
With five years on the Santero, New Mexico, force, Wallace isn’t the rookie detective he once was. But with success comes expectations, and because Wallace is considering quitting, the weight of those expectations feels even greater. The unexplained death of a child recalls the M.O. of a serial killer active 10 years ago and makes his decision that much harder. And when another child disappears from the Oro del Sol campground in the middle of flood season, it’s not just Wallace who is sure that the Sandman is back. The search for the missing girl takes the detective and his co-workers all over, from rough-and-tumble wilderness in the desert to the doorsteps of friends and neighbors. Through it all, the storyline gives us insights into the killer himself, making him all the more frightening even while we grow to understand him. What’s more, because the search involves law enforcement, the local community, and tourists at the campground, there’s no knowing whom to count on, much less whom to trust. As in the first installment, the biggest draws here are the characters and the scenery. The harsh beauty of New Mexico informs so much of the setting and story, while the characters—most particularly Wallace’s longtime girlfriend, Sammie Turco, and boss, Karla Woodson—develop further. Each character is distinct even when delivering exposition and engaging in the business of investigation, forensics, and surviving in unforgiving wilderness. What’s more, through aging deputy Bart “BB” Busey, the killer, and others, we learn more in this volume about the history and culture of the area, adding a welcome depth to an already compelling setting. Finally, the author ably renders the mystery itself—however grim the subject matter, the prose never becomes gratuitous or disrespectful—and the complexities of learning disabilities.
A page-turner with plenty of intelligence and heart; readers will want more.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 235
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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