An often compelling work despite a dissatisfying reveal.
The sole survivor of a cult’s mass suicide struggles to piece his shattered life back together in McCord’s novel.
For decades, Tom Duncan belonged to the Good Weather Community, a strange apocalyptic religious group devoted to the rambling teachings of Leonard Fairbanks, known to his disciples as Rain. Tom, also known as Ohio, came to believe that the world was coming to a cataclysmic end and that in preparation to make the transition to Shamayim—basically heaven—the group had to kill themselves, which they did on one fateful day in the summer of 2019. Tom survived, despite getting his throat cut, and he was the only one left of 137 members of the cult, including his wife, Lisa. Prosecutors believe he masterminded the suicide plot—or maybe it was a mass-murder plot—and although they fail to convict him in a court of law, a Netflix documentary in 2020 succeeds at doing so in the court of public opinion. McCord thrillingly chronicles the aftermath of Tom’s tragedy as he’s hounded by paparazzi, estranged from his daughter and granddaughter, and devastated that he was deceived by Rain, a self-styled prophet whom Tom now characterizes as a “deranged lunatic.” Tom attends a reunion of Good Weather members who’d left the cult, which provides an opportunity for old animosities to reemerge, and he’s confronted about the true nature of his traumatic experience. The author masterfully dispenses information with restraint; slowly, tantalizingly, the reader learns about Tom’s involvement in the community, his relationship with his spouse and child, and his participation in a mass death. McCord’s prose is generally straightforward but powerful and precise, and it avoids the trap of excessive sentimentality. However, although the core of the story is a timeless mystery—how do otherwise reasonably intelligent people come to believe a narcissist’s nonsense?—the answer it provides is disappointingly ordinary. As Tom observes: “Rain was a master manipulator. He could make you feel loved and valued with just a word or leave you in a broken waste with the same.”
An often compelling work despite a dissatisfying reveal.Pub Date: July 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63988-044-7
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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