A quick and lively read that should appeal to fans of both murder mysteries and ghost stories.
An apparition haunts a hotel in a small town in western New York state in this novel.
On a stormy fall night just before Halloween, a ghost appears to a server at the local inn in Akron. The specter seems to be leaving bloody footprints, which suddenly disappear. Shortly thereafter, Wendy Kulbrick, another server, is found on the third floor of the hotel with her head bashed in. No one ever goes on that floor, and Steve, the owner, doesn’t know how she got there. It is up to Senior Investigator Sgt. Mike O’Brien to solve the case. His job gets complicated when he attends a séance led by local librarian Rae Dembrowsky and a ghost speaks through O’Brien, revealing his own history with a spirit. The investigator had been in an accident with a friend named Greta, who died; he had never confessed his romantic feelings to her. Soon, he learns the inn has a history not only involving hauntings, but also a missing artwork called Lady with a Rose, assumed to be a valuable painting. Wendy and bartender Joe Frankenhauser are suspected of trying to find the portrait, which the owners failed to do. Meanwhile, Steve and his manager, Sharon Cottrell, attempt to keep the inn open and discover the new publicity is actually attracting customers. O’Brien has to figure out if Wendy was murdered by supernatural forces or by someone who saw her as competition for Lady. Will the sergeant crack the case and find peace with Greta? Mixing a ghost story with a more realistic mystery is Karl’s (Strange and Disturbing, 2016, etc.) best idea here. It allows her to build up her small town and populate it with intriguing characters. It also gives her a lot of red herrings for the whodunit. The biggest fault of the book is that readers don’t get a lot of scenes starring the two phantoms the author introduces. They don’t appear much, so the audience doesn’t get to know them well in present-day Akron and glimpses only brief histories. Since this is the first installment of a series, readers may find out more about them later. Otherwise, this is an engaging and tidy little tale.
A quick and lively read that should appeal to fans of both murder mysteries and ghost stories.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-974024-22-3
Page Count: 322
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Certainly not for all readers, but anyone interested in seeing William Peter Blatty’s infamous The Exorcist (1971) by way of...
The wonder of friendship proves to be stronger than the power of Christ when an ancient demon possesses a teenage girl.
Hendrix was outrageously inventive with his debut novel (Horrorstör, 2014) and continues his winning streak with a nostalgic (if blood-soaked) horror story to warm the hearts of Gen Xers. “The exorcist is dead,” Hendrix writes in the very first line of the novel, as a middle-aged divorcée named Abby Rivers reflects back on the friendship that defined her life. In flashbacks, Abby meets her best friend, Gretchen Lang, at her 10th birthday party in 1982, forever cementing their comradeship. The bulk of the novel is set in 1988, and it’s an unabashed love letter to big hair, heavy metal, and all the pop-culture trappings of the era, complete with chapter titles ripped from songs all the way from “Don’t You Forget About Me” to “And She Was.” Things go sideways when Abby, Gretchen, and two friends venture off to a cabin in the woods (as happens) to experiment with LSD. After Gretchen disappears for a night, she returns a changed girl. Hendrix walks a precipitously fine line in his portrayal, leaving the story open to doubt whether Gretchen is really possessed or has simply fallen prey to the vanities and duplicities that high school sometimes inspires. He also ferociously captures the frustrations of adolescence as Abby seeks adult help in her plight and is relentlessly dismissed by her elders. She finally finds a hero in Brother Lemon, a member of a Christian boy band, the Lemon Brothers Faith and Fitness Show, who agrees to help her. When Abby’s demon finally shows its true colors in the book’s denouement, it’s not only a spectacularly grotesque and profane depiction of exorcism, but counterintuitively a truly inspiring portrayal of the resilience of friendship.
Certainly not for all readers, but anyone interested in seeing William Peter Blatty’s infamous The Exorcist (1971) by way of Heathers shouldn’t miss it.Pub Date: May 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59474-862-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of smart horror will sink their teeth into this one.
Things are about to get bloody for a group of Charleston housewives.
In 1988, the scariest thing in former nurse Patricia Campbell’s life is showing up to book club, since she hasn’t read the book. It’s hard to get any reading done between raising two kids, Blue and Korey, picking up after her husband, Carter, a psychiatrist, and taking care of her live-in mother-in-law, Miss Mary, who seems to have dementia. It doesn’t help that the books chosen by the Literary Guild of Mt. Pleasant are just plain boring. But when fellow book-club member Kitty gives Patricia a gloriously trashy true-crime novel, Patricia is instantly hooked, and soon she’s attending a very different kind of book club with Kitty and her friends Grace, Slick, and Maryellen. She has a full plate at home, but Patricia values her new friendships and still longs for a bit of excitement. When James Harris moves in down the street, the women are intrigued. Who is this handsome night owl, and why does Miss Mary insist that she knows him? A series of horrific events stretches Patricia’s nerves and her Southern civility to the breaking point. (A skin-crawling scene involving a horde of rats is a standout.) She just knows James is up to no good, but getting anyone to believe her is a Sisyphean feat. After all, she’s just a housewife. Hendrix juxtaposes the hypnotic mundanity of suburbia (which has a few dark underpinnings of its own) against an insidious evil that has taken root in Patricia’s insular neighborhood. It’s gratifying to see her grow from someone who apologizes for apologizing to a fiercely brave woman determined to do the right thing—hopefully with the help of her friends. Hendrix (We Sold Our Souls, 2018, etc.) cleverly sprinkles in nods to well-established vampire lore, and the fact that he’s a master at conjuring heady 1990s nostalgia is just the icing on what is his best book yet.
Fans of smart horror will sink their teeth into this one.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68369-143-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
