A promising start to what could be a fresh paranormal-crime series, if plotting and characterization improve.
A crime novel set in the Colorado backcountry, mixing gritty suspense, supernatural horror, and Native American folklore.
Two hikers discover pieces of a dead body strewn around a snow-swept trail near the tourist town of Deadraven, Colorado. A disabled veteran nicknamed Radio monitors the report from his mountain cabin on a police scanner, except he learns about the grisly find before it actually happens. Logan Lone Bear Tuu’awta, newly returned to his hometown and interning with the local police, discovers the tracks of a large bear at the crime scene. He can also sense something else—a supernatural presence tied to his past. With this mix of horror, mystery, and the unexplained, Clark (The Devolution Chronicles: Rise of the Chimera, 2011, etc.) builds an intriguing setup and a diverse cast of characters. The bodies soon start piling up, with Radio providing Logan advance notice of new deaths. Along with his childhood friend Raven and Sheriff Billie Sue Martin, Logan must unravel the complicated mystery and track down the man-eating bear, which might be an invader from the spirit world. However, as the mystery progresses, the plot begins to get muddy. “Believe, and then you will see,” Ten Bears, a Medicine Man, tells Logan. But for readers unfamiliar with Native American mythology, additional explanation is needed to believe in Logan’s spiritual powers, which guide him in solving the mystery. Deeper, more developed back story early on would flesh out these intriguing characters as well. For example, what exactly happened to Logan in the 10 years he’s been gone from his hometown, and why did he decide to return? What in the sheriff’s checkered past has put her under the thumb of town leaders? And the climactic confrontation with the bear seems to come too soon. Without more information about past events, it’s difficult to make sense of Logan’s dreamlike confrontation with the bear. The extended explanation that follows deflates the fight scene’s action-packed punch.
A promising start to what could be a fresh paranormal-crime series, if plotting and characterization improve.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0985343859
Page Count: 286
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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