Alive with a devilish plot, the book takes a satisfying, twisted journey into evil.
From debut author Masters comes a novel about the sinister side of a small town and the local sheriff’s attempts to uncover the truth.
Chris Samuels takes the job of sheriff in the town of Plummet, New York, in order to escape the many dangers he faced as a police officer in the Bronx. While quaint, the town is hardly isolated: “The best part of Plummet was that you didn’t feel you were stuck in the boondocks…Route 9A conveniently ran parallel to the town.” Plummet isn’t without its troubled past. Though long dead, the seedy figure of Thorn Mastema—“Besides gambling and loan sharking, the man was into child pornography, drugs, prostitution, and illegal abortions”—lives on in both the nursing home that still bears his name and his protégé, one Jason Torrent, who runs the place. When a 3-month-old baby goes missing, Torrent offers a $500,000 reward, even though Sheriff Samuels feels he is a prime suspect. It’s a suspicion that Samuels is warned against voicing. As the mayor explains, “You can’t start accusing a man like Torrent about a kidnapping.” Powerful, mysterious, and unpleasant in social situations, Torrent is not a man to be trifled with, but how else can the sheriff do his job? Populated with local characters, including a portly deputy and a kindhearted priest, the story incorporates everyday struggles and diabolical occurrences. For example, a book falls open to a page of a “drawing rendered in blood of a child with a dagger hovering over his heart, surrounded by six people with anguish and pain etched on their faces.” While certain portions involving occult practices may prove too obvious for some readers (“The Fourth Gateway of Hell shall be opened when Satan tastes the blood of a righteous one and an evil one”), those intrigued by a town with a streak of wickedness will feel right at home with the sheriff and his search for answers, particularly as the answers become ever more troubling.
Alive with a devilish plot, the book takes a satisfying, twisted journey into evil.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500518653
Page Count: 304
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This vibrant, thoughtful book from Katz (Over the Moon, 1997) continues her tribute to her adopted daughter, Lena, born in Guatemala. Lena is “seven. I am the color of cinnamon. Mom says she could eat me up”; she learns during a painting lesson that to get the color brown, she will have to “mix red, yellow, black, and white paints.” They go for a walk to observe the many shades of brown: they see Sonia, who is the color of creamy peanut butter; Isabella, who is chocolate brown; Lucy, both peachy and tan; Jo-Jin, the color of honey; Kyle, “like leaves in fall”; Mr. Pellegrino, the color of pizza crust, golden brown. Lena realizes that every shade is beautiful, then mixes her paints accordingly for portraits of her friends—“The colors of us!” Bold illustrations celebrate diversity with a child’s open-hearted sensibility and a mother’s love. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5864-8
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
Neal Carey, the Smollett-loving specialist in finding people who don't want to be found (A Cool Breeze on the Underground, 1990), is hustled off to San Francisco to drag AWOL pesticide expert Robert Pendleton away from china doll Li Lan and back to paternal corporation AgriTech. But the fireworks that erupt after Neal's found the happy couple make him wonder whether gorgeous, talented painter Li Lan isn't actually a Communist agent who's trying to woo Pendleton back to her country; by the time Neal has been taken prisoner in the Walled City of Hong Kong, he's already gotten the Communists, the CIA, and AgriTech ready to burn him. And more trouble lies ahead, as shadowy patriarch Xao Xiyang and his treacherous underling Peng plot against each other to manipulate Neal into exposing Pendleton and Li Lan in a climax that still has room for a surprise or two. Despite Neal's inveterate habit of wising off in his mind's mouth, this is a sturdy two evenings' worth of entertainment.
Pub Date: March 18, 1992
ISBN: 0-312-07099-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992
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