Keen characterization fuels a taut horror tale that simmers with tension.
In this novel, an irrational captain turns a 19th-century sea expedition into a nightmarish ordeal.
Nearly 18 years old, Kit Cabot is heir to a family fortune. But filling out ledgers for his father’s Boston-based Cabot Shipping Company leaves him perpetually stuck in a warehouse. Uncle John, who regales him with sea stories, remains Kit’s one source of excitement. The two also secretly smuggle rum, giving Kit extra income and the chance to buy his own ship and sail off one day. Unfortunately, there seems to be something wrong with John, who’s just returned from collecting goods. Quartermaster Mr. Whyte claims a red pearl John found in a cave has “changed” him. So Kit stows away on the Apollyon, only to discover his uncle’s deteriorating physical condition (“The man looked less like a sailor and more like something dredged up from the bottom of the sea”). More alarmingly, John’s also become a cruel captain. Is something possessing him? Kit and Mr. Whyte believe the answer lies in getting rid of that pearl, if they can just grab it without alerting John. This book, the second in a series of thematically linked horror novels, thrives on suspense. John’s increasingly erratic behavior means that it’s just a matter of time before the crew mutinies. As in Taylor’s preceding volume, The Memory Keeper (2025), the author’s concise descriptions keep the narrative moving while rarely straying from the spookiest parts. For example, there’s the question of whether something otherworldly has truly possessed John, putting all the men aboard the Apollyon in indisputable danger. The cast is engaging, starting with Kit, whose habitually painful leg (from a childhood injury) remains a constant reminder that he’s struggling to run away from his life in Boston. Other standouts are Kit’s cold, overbearing father, Edmund, as well as Mr. Whyte, a deceptively unassertive man whom the young protagonist comes to rely on. Everything surrounding John and the red pearl becomes much more apparent in the smashing final act, which takes a slight—but exhilarating—genre detour.
Keen characterization fuels a taut horror tale that simmers with tension.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9798993350745
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Latchkey Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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