An enticing tale and an effective introduction to an expansive fictional world.
In Arriaza’s supernatural debut novel, a doctor aids a wounded stranger who shows up on her property and then faces a wave of otherworldly creatures.
Dr. Melisa Castro plans to spend her vacation in bed with Chris Kosmatka, her fiance and the father of her son-to-be. But while she waits for Chris to return from work, someone else drops by—a man who rolls down a hill, right into her LA backyard. As she tends to him, she’s shocked by his large, open, but bloodless chest wound, and when she touches it, she has a vision of the man restrained and someone stabbing him. Elsewhere in the city, the enigmatic Ranald, who perpetually wears a leather jacket and sunglasses, is trying to track down a stolen dagger. The blade had the power to kill a powerful individual known as the Hunter, whose now-missing body was its last resting place. The Hunter could also be linked to vicious animal attacks that cops (including Melisa’s brother, Walter) are investigating. As her visions continue, Melisa also learns that she’s marrying into a family that hides a dark secret. Arriaza’s entertaining tale features a few traditional supernatural beings that readers will recognize, but he employs their familiarity to the story’s advantage, simplifying the plot by cutting down on unnecessary back story. This helps the book maintain a steady momentum, particularly in the brisk final act, which is filled with inevitable confrontations. The real highlights, however, are the characters’ constantly shifting alliances. Some of the descriptions are repetitive (the word “massive,” for instance, is used too often), but they detail the action in concise, clipped sentences: “She can see his eyes. Beautiful blue eyes. He is screaming something; she can’t understand it.” Much of the explanation of what’s really going on, including ties to religion, is reserved for the end, and it’s coherent while also leaving plenty to explore in future planned volumes.
An enticing tale and an effective introduction to an expansive fictional world.Pub Date: March 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9987933-0-6
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Rio Dulce Books
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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