This vampire yarn hits familiar beats with a standout cast and a grand denouement.
A college student transforms after a vampire’s bite in Nix’s supernatural thriller.
University of Michigan senior Drew Owens cherishes his late-night walks across campus. Unfortunately, that’s prime time for vampires to stalk, and one night a bloodsucker suddenly attacks him. Miraculously, he awakens in a body bag, and a voice coaxes him out. It belongs to Samatonius Belzar, a 1,500-year-old vampire (and not the one who bit Drew). Sam belongs to a “family” that Drew has now joined. While most of these vamps are affable, Fredrick Kolf is definitely not. He’s got his red eye on Meg Larson, a fellow student Drew met recently. Fredrick may be a powerful vampire, but Drew, unlike the rest of the family, is immune to sunlight and “religious relics” like crucifixes. Drew resolves to keep Meg safe from Fredrick. Much of this tale lingers in recognizable terrain; these vampires are immortal, nocturnal beings who bite necks and flaunt such supernatural abilities as telepathy. Still, the cast is engaging, as Sam lovingly embraces new family members and Drew resists drinking blood for as long as he can (“Remnants of his human side still resided within him….At the moment, he felt incapable of murdering some innocent stranger”). The subplots are uniformly engrossing, including the detectives’ murder case, Drew and Meg’s potential romance, and the backstory of the vampiric “curse” that began in Jerusalem millennia ago. There is nominal action and suspense, as the characters are more prone to discussions of all that comes with being a vampire. Nevertheless, Drew’s unique immunity leads to an intriguing narrative turn that ignites a riveting final act and an unforgettable ending.
This vampire yarn hits familiar beats with a standout cast and a grand denouement.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2023
ISBN: 979-8862713138
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kindle Direct Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2023
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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