An imaginative series debut with a spooky plot, chilling details, and a wholesome family.
A family relocating to northern New England finds a nightmare within their perfect new house in Halbert’s supernatural thriller.
After a careful search, the Keane family, formerly of Boston, have found the ideal New England property to relocate to. With a mixture of anticipation and reservation, married couple Ian and Lyana move to bucolic Littleton, New Hampshire, with their children—Ariel, who’s 15, and Zach, who’s 12 and on the autism spectrum. Hoping to slow their pace of life down and better connect with each other, the family becomes enchanted with an old English Tudor-style manor on Farr Hill. The house, “hugged by trees,” comes complete with a hidden driveway, an imposing rustic appearance, expansive gardens, and an architecturally “unique blend of masonry and woodwork.” The house was built in 1933 by a man who mysteriously disappeared 40 years later. The owner’s nephew, Marshall, eventually assumed control of the property and has remained as a groundskeeper for decades while assorted families moved in—and then hurriedly moved back out, claiming the house was haunted. As the town gossip mill churns, the rumors begin to seem real: Lyana hears whispers in the halls, the kids discover hidden rooms and doorways with cryptic symbols on the grounds, the image of a little girl appears in the pantry, the walls and floors begin to shift, and a series of horrifying, mind-bending dreams make Ian and Lyana begin to question their sanity. Marshall’s cabin, located on the manor grounds, offers more frights than answers, but the family stands together as the mystery deepens and their dream of a fresh start seems ever more elusive. Ian leans on his profession to understand the situation confronting his family. (He’s a professor of ancient history who studies ancient tribal communities and their role in creating the towns and villages that thrive in contemporary society.) He uses his knowledge to his advantage as the novel plays out, until a crushing medical malady stuns the Keane family.
In this inaugural volume of the Goodpasture Chronicles, Halbert puts a new spin on classic horror and suspense tropes of the “creepy old house with a malevolent entity embedded in its walls” variety. Though the story has moments of suspenseful tension, the narrative stumbles somewhat and loses momentum once Lyana’s tragedy is revealed and a rather implausible development results from it. Nevertheless, the author’s authentic, believable characters provide a sturdy framework for the drama taking place inside (and outside) the manor, and the short chapters keep things moving along at a brisk pace. Plenty of character backstory adds depth to the tale. Some of the most riveting scenes involve the adventurous children as they wander the property grounds discovering new areas of the “spooky woods,” which are chillingly depicted but never fully explored. Still, the author successfully and cleverly re-creates and refreshes the haunted house yarn with a fresh sense of dark wonder and mystery, adding plenty of eerie nuances that are creepy but ultimately harmless and devoid of anything that’s graphically terrorizing, which will appeal to adult and YA reading audiences alike. The concluding scene will have thriller fans primed for the next installment.
An imaginative series debut with a spooky plot, chilling details, and a wholesome family.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781963366051
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Eald Talu House
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
SEEN & HEARD
Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.
Following her father’s sudden death, Aisling Swann is secretly horrified when her mother begins to date again—and she quickly becomes suspicious of this new flame.
Four years ago: A mysterious male narrator reflects upon his relationship with his wife—along with a few pointed comments about how she is aging. It quickly becomes apparent that this self-proclaimed “very pleasant” man is not who he seems; he already has a girlfriend on the side, and he’s playing both women with sob stories about his job and his traumatic past while taking money from them. Even as they get more and more frustrated with his lack of communication during ever-lengthening absences, he still gives them what they want: “a top-notch husband.” In the present day, Ash Swann; her brother, Arlo; and their mother, Nina, mourn the loss of her charismatic father, Paddy, a successful chef with a chain of lucrative restaurants. Nina receives a sympathy note from a man who claims to have worked closely with Paddy in the industry, which leads to a robust online flirtation that moves into the real world about a year after her husband’s death. Ash is living at home, mired in grief as well as her own mental health struggles, and she’s none too happy to see her mom dating—but particularly this handsome, egregiously suave Nick Radcliffe. Ash begins to notice some inconsistencies with his stories and his past, so she enlists Paddy’s ex-girlfriend Jane to help her investigate. Meanwhile, Ash’s story continues to intercut that of the mysterious man who is now married to his former girlfriend—and still up to his old tricks. Jewell’s cutting between past and present certainly allows revelations to ooze out at a slow, controlled pace; even as the reader makes obvious connections, the full picture remains obscure. Jewell has written some incredibly engaging and strong female characters, Nina, Ash, and Jane foremost among them. What would it have been like to split the narrative between them instead of giving so much voice—and thus narrative power—to the male antagonist?
Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9781668033876
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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