A tense paranormal tale with an unusual, if sometimes-disjointed, narrative structure.
A retired priest, a group of young ghost hunters, and a pair of twins with supernatural powers become entangled in a demon’s revenge plot in Faherty’s supernatural thriller.
Asmodeus, known as the prince of demons, pledged its vengeance on the Rev. Leo Bonaventura five decades ago, and has come to Earth to claim its prize. The story is told over the course of a half-century, starting with the inciting incident—in which Bonaventura exorcised Asmodeus from the body of a 12-year-old boy in Guatemala—and moving forward. It jumps ahead a decade with each chapter and visiting locales around the world to show how various characters—including ghost hunters in Hastings Mills, New York, and feared Ohio twin sisters Claudia and Shari, who have very unusual abilities—arrive at the same place with the same goal of eradicating the demon. Mysterious, disturbing events ramp up over time, from spontaneous suicides and unexplained murders to a student séance gone awry and bizarre weather events, adding to a sense of growing chaos. The prose is engaging and suspenseful throughout, and the descriptions, particularly of scenes of demonic possession, are often vivid: “Dazzling bursts of white light exploded from the rafters. Everywhere they appeared, flames flickered to life across the aged wood. The townspeople tumbled over, their eyes burned away. Swarms of beetles emerged from the sockets and skittered across the floor.” Amid such fireworks, the character relationships also feel convincing. However, the offbeat chronology and shifting third-person character perspectives sometimes make the story difficult to follow. Along the way, the narrative strongly addresses themes of guilt and how it relates to religion; for example, one major character, also a priest, is an abuser of young children, and the work disturbingly delves into his thought process: “Ain’t Christianity the best? his subconscious whispered, while he mentally recited the Hail Mary. Defile your soul for what, the hundredth time? Two hundredth? But say a few imaginary invocations and all is forgiven. You’re a clean slate again.”
A tense paranormal tale with an unusual, if sometimes-disjointed, narrative structure.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-78758-593-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2022
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
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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