A riveting multigenre tale with sharply drawn characters in a striking futuristic world.
In this debut sci-fi/mystery novel, the latest case for a detective in a dystopian future entails magic, interdimensional aliens, and, quite possibly, vampires.
Tom Holliday’s recruitment into the newly launched Special Crimes Unit is primarily due to his gift. The investigator, who transferred from the Empire City Police Department, uses a supernatural perception that he calls the Insight to close cases. That’s just what retired ECPD Capt. Bill Mahoney needs as head of the SCU—“to solve the unsolvable and inexplicable by any means necessary.” Holliday’s first case involves the body of Vanessa Mallery, completely drained of blood by, according to eyewitnesses, a vampire. The detective’s SCU partner is Deacon Kole, a former Protector (law enforcer) from the Confederate States of Birmingham, one of 52 worldwide enclaves in existence after a nuclear calamity and pandemics ravaged Earth years ago. Holliday and Kole team up with Besim Saranda, a female Vellan; her alien race abandoned its war-devastated world from a parallel dimension to take refuge on human-inhabited Earth. While Holliday readily accepts Vellans and furthermore believes in magic, he’s certain vampires don’t exist. But finding the killer won’t be easy: Cameras at the murder scene were inexplicably disabled, and the two witnesses were high on a hallucinatory drug called Goldjoy. And there’s evidently more to the case than potential vampirism, including a drug lord and baddies meticulously cleaning crime scenes, leaving behind a perceptible lemon scent. Holliday and company will encounter a slew of dangerous individuals as well as a few more bodies before it’s all over. Hartog deftly fuses genres in this entertaining series opener. The novel is first and foremost sci-fi, with a thoroughly detailed future Earth and inventive tech, like Holliday’s new DNA-bonded Superior Military Armament Retaliatory Tool gun that only he can operate. But the story’s tone owes more to classic hard-boiled fiction: Holliday has a dark past (he was once addicted to Goldjoy); the rain never seems to let up; and Kole rarely appears without a smoldering cigarette. Although Holliday is most assuredly not a cynical detective, he’s unquestionably appealing. For example, his nickname, Doc, is not from Wyatt Earp’s gunslinging pal but rather from the investigator’s Ph.D. in classical literature. Moreover, Holliday’s first-person narration is unabashed and often charming: “I’m not afraid of heights, but I do maintain a healthy respect for anything that might get me killed, like angry ex-boyfriends, or falling from a hundred-plus story building.” Other characters shine as well, such as Leyla, Holliday’s shrewd hacker friend, who, as it happens, is capable of magic. As the narrative progresses, the supernatural elements increase, from a fetch, a parasitic “shadow creature,” to an especially formidable man who, through a combination of magic and technology, doesn’t go down easy. The SCU’s case does eventually turn conspiratorial, particularly with the identity of an initially unknown villain named Orpheus, which is a significant twist. Nevertheless, based on the cliffhanger ending, that’s a plot turn that the author plans on picking up in the next series installment.
A riveting multigenre tale with sharply drawn characters in a striking futuristic world.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72671-227-9
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
