Flashes of Psycho on a ride through the gruesome landscape of a corpse-obsessed serial killer, with supernatural boy as hero.
A psychopathic serial killer who finds his female victims on a hookup website meets brutal justice with the help of a ghostly boy in this paranormal thriller.
Dwight Barnes, 36, a psychopathic serial killer, likes to cruise the hookup website XXXtreme Discretion to find his victims. Using handles like Plussizedluver34 and Lovemlarge36, Barnes hunts targets on the heavy side, unable to stop until he finds a perfect size 12. His “dream girl” must also wear a yellow dress, which he will use to clothe his dead beloved, whose rotted corpse he French-kisses in a coffin in his basement. Unfortunately, the insecure women he meets online tend to lie about their weight. When Barnes, the wealthy owner of a New York–based accounting firm, discovers their dishonesty, it triggers outbursts of lust and violence that will leave some readers queasy. (A meat grinder and a hungry dog come in handy.) But screams are futile in the dungeon of Barnes’ remote hunting lodge in Pennsylvania. That is, until Monica Ross, a Roxbury, New Jersey, detective, sees that several missing women bear striking similarities. As she zeros in on Barnes, a ghostly boy appears in front of her car in a dark tunnel. As the boy lays in a coma in the hospital, his disembodied voice in the minds of key players will ultimately lead to the killer in a ghastly climax. Along the way, Infinito (The Secrets of Hallow, 2014, etc.) plunges readers elbow-deep into scenes of gore and torture. He also deftly “brings to life” the corpse, which, Son of Sam–like, directs the killer’s moves. Though well-paced, the novel’s tone sometimes wavers: “Raised by an abusive father who spent more time fucking him in the ass than teaching him about life, Dwight never thought he’d learn how to give his heart to another person.” Some readers will also shudder as children are maimed and murdered. In short, this page-turner is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Flashes of Psycho on a ride through the gruesome landscape of a corpse-obsessed serial killer, with supernatural boy as hero.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1626942417
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Black Opal Books
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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