A rousing mystical tale and smashing series finale.
In this third installment of a supernatural trilogy, a ghost hunter and a college graduate’s excursion into magic opens up a world of deities, angels, and the devil himself.
Twenty-four year-old Desiree Macklin is vacationing in Ireland when she first meets Alec Doogan. The author and paranormal researcher seems fascinated by Desiree, who suggests using his “detection equipment” on someone undergoing a religious experience. But their research, including testing for ectoplasm at St. Patrick’s gravesite, prompts a stranger’s warning. Joseph de Alverado, an angel of the Egyptian god Ptah, cautions that they’re “toying with fire.” Dr. Sanantha Mauwad, a Voodou practitioner and Desiree’s psychiatrist, knows that Joseph once served an evil man named Silas. Having once saved Desiree from death, which entailed Voodou goddess Erzulie gifting the young woman a soul, Sanantha flies to Dublin out of concern for her patient. Alec, meanwhile, delves into magic, like spells for summoning spirits, which soon garners a following after its exposure online. But somewhere out there is a threat: Sammael, sometimes called Satan, whom Sanantha battled nearly a decade ago in Washington, D.C., targets Desiree due to her connection with Erzulie. The goddess, wanting revenge against Sammael, may welcome a war, regardless of the potentially disastrous outcome. Hartlove loads this dense, sharply written tale with characters and events. Joining the others in Ireland, for example, are Sanantha’s estranged boyfriend, Simon Herrera, who hasn’t quite finalized his divorce, and FBI Special Agent Jill Bitterman, who’s reinvestigating the Washington case involving the psychiatrist. The steadily paced narrative superbly incorporates different religions, showing distinctions as well as commonalities (including a figure as “the source of all evil in the world”). Though Hartlove strongly ties this novel to the preceding installments, his skillful storytelling ensures that new readers won’t be lost. The trilogy is nevertheless best enjoyed from the start, as there are myriad spoilers in this volume.
A rousing mystical tale and smashing series finale. (dedication, author bio)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-949139-68-6
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Paper Angel Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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