A dark but captivating look at life inside a failed American society.
After the economy crashes, a covert-operations veteran faces the cruel realities of life off the grid and outside the law.
Commissioned military officer Bourne (Day by Day Armageddon: Shattered Hourglass, 2012, etc.) has created a scenario in which martial law is established in the U.S. and a Hobbesian state of nature develops. Reminiscent of Jack London’s classic 1908 novel, The Iron Heel, this story about a dystopian future is told mainly through the journal entries of a government operative named Max (last name redacted) who's been through SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) school in Maine, as well as even more advanced training grounds aimed at what he calls " 'high risk of capture' folks like me." On his first mission, however, he unknowingly helps trigger a cyberattack that leads to the complete breakdown of the international economic exchange (the details of how this happens remain vague). When he realizes what the ramifications of his actions will be, Max returns to an old family plot in rural Arkansas, stockpiles weapons, and loads up on supplies. Once the banking system implodes, civil society quickly deteriorates. Unlike nearly everyone else, Max is well-prepared for the harsh new realities of life. All the same, there are many obstacles between him and a pleasant life among his hoarded goods. Not only will he have to battle looters, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and the harsh elements, but he will also face a militaristic local arm of the government which is looking to disarm its citizens and has lost any regard for the tenets of the Constitution. While it remains unclear how the international fabric of economic stability can be unraveled so rapidly, the author knows more than enough about the prepping process for a post-apocalyptic reality to maintain the reader’s rapt attention.
A dark but captivating look at life inside a failed American society.Pub Date: June 30, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4516-2913-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Cheap fun: a guilty pleasure few monster-addicts will be able to resist.
A witty, grisly debut about the secret adventures of a Florida sociopath who murders only bad guys.
Dexter Morgan makes his living off the blood of the dead—literally. A “blood-splatter analyst” for the Miami Police Department, Dexter works only on the messiest cases, nearly all homicides and quite a few the work of serial killers. It takes one to know one, too, for Dexter has a very deep and well-guarded secret: He’s been bumping people off for years. Dexter knew from an early age that he was somehow different, and his father, Detective Harry Morgan, had picked up enough abnormal psychology on the job to recognize the signs. Harry tried to help Dexter out by suggesting that the boy might want to make a virtue of necessity by concentrating his murderous energies on the truly wicked people of the world—and Dexter agreed, beginning with the hospice nurse who was systematically overdosing Harry with morphine. From that day forward, Dexter (and his ghostly imaginary friend, the Dark Passenger) have done well by doing bad, disposing of a long line of pedophiles, killers, sadists, and thugs. A consummate professional, Dexter has never left a shred of incriminating evidence behind, but lately he’s begun to worry. A copycat killer is on the loose, leaving a string of victims strewn about the dark byways of Miami bearing the trademarks of Dexter’s handiwork in an obvious attempt to lure him out of hiding. Dexter can play his hand close to his chest, but unfortunately for him one of the cops assigned to the new cases is his sister Deborah, who knows nothing of Dexter’s extracurricular activities. Part of Dexter wants to come of the cold and play with this new guy on the block, but he feels an obligation to keep his sister from being implicated. It’s not just thieves, after all: There’s honor among murderers, too.
Cheap fun: a guilty pleasure few monster-addicts will be able to resist.Pub Date: July 27, 2004
ISBN: 0-385-51123-X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2004
A grim and unbearably tense debut chiller with an unexpected and utterly fitting finale.
A lonely British schoolteacher falls for an American man incarcerated for the murder of a young woman. What could possibly go wrong?
Samantha, 31, is still reeling from a bad breakup when she discovers Framing the Truth: The Murder of Holly Michaels, an 18-year-old true-crime documentary about the killing of a young girl by then-18-year-old Dennis Danson, aka the suspected Red River Killer, who’s still on death row in Florida’s Altoona Prison. Sam writes to Dennis, and soon they’re declaring their love for each other. Sam flies to the U.S. to meet him, and although they’re separated by plexiglass, she knows that she’s found the love of her life. The chirpy Carrie, who co-produced and directed the first documentary, is Sam’s guide while she’s there, and Sam accompanies her while they film a new series about Dennis, A Boy from Red River. Sam and Dennis quickly marry when new evidence comes to light and Dennis is exonerated and released. Amid a whirlwind of talk shows, celebrity attention, and the new series premiere, married life isn’t quite what Sam had hoped for: intimacy is nonexistent, the already self-loathing Sam feels unloved and unwanted, and the appearance of Dennis’ clingy childhood friend Lindsay Durst sends Sam into a jealous fit. After Dennis’ father dies, they move into Dennis’ childhood home, and Sam begins to suspect he may be hiding something. After all, what actually happened to all those other missing girls? Refreshingly, Lloyd seems absolutely unconcerned with whether or not her characters are likable, and although a few British sayings ("round," “in hospital”) make their way into the dialogue of the American characters, her research into the aftereffects of long incarceration is obvious, and her portrait of an emotionally damaged woman feels spot-on.
A grim and unbearably tense debut chiller with an unexpected and utterly fitting finale.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-335-95240-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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