The mystery, which involves transitional characters in the series, heats up only at the very end, making it hard to get more...
A traveler accompanied by the wisecracking figure of Death struggles to put her past behind her as she investigates new friends in a little Idaho town.
Ever since the sudden demises of her husband and young son some years ago, Casey Maldonado has been literally haunted by Death. Though she’s tried to put her life back together, even trying to commit to Eric VanDiepenbos, her new boyfriend, she’s not ready to start living and wonders whether a road trip might help her find inner peace. While journeying through rural Idaho, she’s roughed up by some young men who don’t reckon with her knowledge of Hapkido. Acknowledging that she can’t continue on until she’s healed, Casey winds up getting a job and leasing an apartment from Armstrong general store owner Vern Daily. Vern was born and raised in the small town; his wife, Dottie Hass, came from outside—a fact none of the townspeople have ever let them forget, especially not Ethel Bernard, the woman everyone thought Vern would marry. It feels to Casey as if Vern and Dottie pay a daily penance, dealing with harassment and vandalism from town residents who blame Dottie for the death of her infant daughter years ago. Though Casey feels protective of the Dailys, she shies away from Dottie, who’s obviously in her final illness. In hopes of stopping some of the bullying, Casey digs into the history of the animosity, learning that something may have happened on a Halloween night many years ago, though she can’t get a straight answer about just what happened or who’s to blame. The figure of Death, which has changed personalities throughout this series (Dying Echo, 2012, etc.), seems divided this time between assisting Casey and trying on movie personalities for one-liners, as if Clemens still hasn’t settled on a role that fits the unearthly creature.
The mystery, which involves transitional characters in the series, heats up only at the very end, making it hard to get more invested in the heroine’s life than she seems to be.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4642-0988-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Fans of smart horror will sink their teeth into this one.
Things are about to get bloody for a group of Charleston housewives.
In 1988, the scariest thing in former nurse Patricia Campbell’s life is showing up to book club, since she hasn’t read the book. It’s hard to get any reading done between raising two kids, Blue and Korey, picking up after her husband, Carter, a psychiatrist, and taking care of her live-in mother-in-law, Miss Mary, who seems to have dementia. It doesn’t help that the books chosen by the Literary Guild of Mt. Pleasant are just plain boring. But when fellow book-club member Kitty gives Patricia a gloriously trashy true-crime novel, Patricia is instantly hooked, and soon she’s attending a very different kind of book club with Kitty and her friends Grace, Slick, and Maryellen. She has a full plate at home, but Patricia values her new friendships and still longs for a bit of excitement. When James Harris moves in down the street, the women are intrigued. Who is this handsome night owl, and why does Miss Mary insist that she knows him? A series of horrific events stretches Patricia’s nerves and her Southern civility to the breaking point. (A skin-crawling scene involving a horde of rats is a standout.) She just knows James is up to no good, but getting anyone to believe her is a Sisyphean feat. After all, she’s just a housewife. Hendrix juxtaposes the hypnotic mundanity of suburbia (which has a few dark underpinnings of its own) against an insidious evil that has taken root in Patricia’s insular neighborhood. It’s gratifying to see her grow from someone who apologizes for apologizing to a fiercely brave woman determined to do the right thing—hopefully with the help of her friends. Hendrix (We Sold Our Souls, 2018, etc.) cleverly sprinkles in nods to well-established vampire lore, and the fact that he’s a master at conjuring heady 1990s nostalgia is just the icing on what is his best book yet.
Fans of smart horror will sink their teeth into this one.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68369-143-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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