A brisk, accomplished horror debut from an author to watch.
In Drago’s debut novel, an insidious horror reveals itself in a small North Carolina town.
The town of Crow Creek is experiencing two tragedies: In the dramatic foreground, a massive sinkhole has suddenly opened up on King Street, swallowing cars and businesses and very nearly some citizens; in the background, the town has seen an inordinate number of inexplicable suicides in recent years. The sinkhole, which naturally takes precedence, opens underneath the normal day-to-day lives of a well-drawn cast of characters, including loutish Stan “Krully” Krulikowski, a branch manager at Crow Creek Savings; and Sheriff Brad Gleason, who’s taking care of his father, the previous sheriff. (Drago writes of the old man’s decline into senility with memorable sensitivity.) Gleason is the kind of guy that others turn to in times of crisis, but his young daughter Maddie was one of the town’s suicides two years ago (“She drove up to Ninth Street on lunch break one afternoon, waited for a Southern Railways freight car, and ended her life. Plain and simple. Left her keys in the ignition with the car running”), and he’s as puzzled as everyone else in town about what’s driving so many people to take their own lives. Those deaths are regularly commemorated by the town’s enigmatic cleric, Pastor Aken, and Drago develops Aken’s darkness so skillfully that by the time readers actually meet the pastor in person, it’s no surprise that he’s the villain of the story. As Sheriff Gleason agonizes over hearing the disembodied voice of his dead daughter, the author grippingly weaves issues of faith and the afterlife into his bubbling plot. Drago’s major literary influence is fairly obvious; the small town of quirky locals, the dogged teamwork amid adversity, and the compelling, central figure of evil are very much Stephen King’s territory. However, Drago navigates this terrain with considerable skill and a good ear for dialogue and deadpan humor.
A brisk, accomplished horror debut from an author to watch.Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615982663
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Gold Avenue Press
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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