A largely lackluster addition to the haunted house genre.
A man’s new home might be the epicenter for a powerful evil in this first installment of Cooper’s horror series.
Kevin Swan comes into possession of a 97-year-old house in the remote wilds of California (somewhere outside Pasadena), where the closest town is a small mountainside village. With only his German Shepherd, Princess (“a strapping, adult male, rescue dog; the unfortunate moniker had come with him”), for company, he soon begins to notice strange happenings in his new home. Tired of bickering with his dog like they’re an old married couple, on a whim Kevin picks up two homeless men from a parking lot to help him around the manor in exchange for room and board. The motley crew quickly realizes that supernatural occurrences are happening with increasing frequency; books about dark magic randomly appear, and they find a chalkboard with weird runes written on it. Kevin attempts to get help from a Caltech professor with an interest in the occult, but neither he nor “Spooky,” another casual dabbler in the dark arts, can provide many answers. Kevin resolves to figure out the mystery of this haunted house or die trying as he encounters more dark forces at play. Cooper tells a strange tale that adequately unsettles but often loses itself in long-winded tangents that are a slog to follow and sometimes even confusing to the reader. Sudden switches to different perspectives, such as that of a knife or a Chinese woman called “Shenzhen Lady,” occur with no explanation for their purpose within the narrative. The writing is disjointed and overly descriptive, lingering on unimportant moments of housework or inner musings in favor of furthering the plot. The characters are either barely present or one-dimensional, with Kevin the only one given a detailed backstory. The ending is a head-scratching cliffhanger that leaves room for a sequel that will hopefully have more answers than questions.
A largely lackluster addition to the haunted house genre.Pub Date: May 11, 2022
ISBN: 9798810054955
Page Count: 495
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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