A fun read for PI aficionados and kitschy horror fans alike.
A jaded private detective in a monster-stricken city gets more than he bargained for when his client dies under suspicious circumstances.
From vampires to poltergeists to voodoo priests and zombies, the residents of San Monstruo—“THE CITY OF MONSTERS AND NIGHTMARES,” a highway sign reads—are anything but regular, and the regular people, or “regulars,” who live there are a strange bunch, too. Seemingly everyone is chased by their own versions of something worse than monsters and nightmares. Most of the monsters, however, are—despite their monstrous appearances, unconventional lifestyles and unsavory dietary preferences—actually not so scary; they’re just trying to make a living and even be upstanding citizens like anyone else. The city even puts the zombies (protective mouth guards securely fastened) to work as street sweepers. Like any city, San Monstruo has its share of criminals and lowlifes, though the underbelly feels a bit more threatening than most, thanks to the fangs, claws and all sorts of magic. As a former police detective, Vic Brahm used to make it his business to protect the city from an unusually grotesque brand of criminals, but after leaving the force, his only business now is with anyone willing to pay him for his PI work. When Mr. Chatha, a 4,000-year-old Egyptian, contracts Vic to investigate his wife Diane’s suspected infidelity, it seems like a pretty open-and-shut case—until Diane, after finding Vic’s card in Mr. Chatha’s desk, shows up at Vic’s office asking for his help investigating her husband’s alleged suicide. Meanwhile, Vic’s old partner from the force, a sasquatch named Jerry, is stuck trying to find the Riding Hood killer; he’d sure like Vic to help him out. In spite of being a fairly standard, sometimes-predictable detective novel in its character types and storylines, Cowlin’s debut still stands out as a worthwhile read. The well-built, horror-inspired world of San Monstruo offers just the right balance of humor and creepiness to keep readers on the edges of their seats without being quite terrified. The novel shines the most brightly, however, as the author explores what it means to be a monster. There’s one in everyone.
A fun read for PI aficionados and kitschy horror fans alike.Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-937484-18-7
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Amika Press
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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