A gripping mystery with historical and speculative-fiction flourishes that should captivate fans of all three genres.
In Farmer’s debut novel, an alcoholic reporter’s investigation of an old psychiatric hospital unearths many more complex and disturbing mysteries, blending American history, African mythology, mystery and Southern Gothic drama.
Angie McDowell is working on a story about Blytheville State Hospital, a mental institution in Georgia that, before the Civil War, had been a slave plantation. As she begins digging into the hospital’s past, she discovers some disturbing evidence that the plantation owner had been obsessed with evolution and trying to create a hybrid race through regulated breeding. She also begins experiencing visions of what seems to be the ghost of a giant slave woman, Sallie, who has six fingers on each hand and communicates with Angie in hopes that she can be the one to finally put right all the wrongs that had been perpetrated against blacks on this seemingly cursed property. She enlists the help of Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Blake Childs, a former lover of hers, and the two go down a veritable rabbit hole that involves the history of the Blythe family, their slaves, a mysterious undertaking called “Project Nephili” and an archeological dig in Israel. All the while, they cross paths with incredibly dangerous people and risk their lives to uncover the truth. Farmer has crafted an often taut, tense page-turner with an impressively large scope, not only expanding the story to international boundaries but dipping into flashbacks going all the way back to Africa in 1805 and stretching throughout the pre– and post–Civil War eras in the American South. Ultimately, the story incorporates elements biblical, mythological and even paranormal. Although the characters, particularly the shadowy villains, tend to remain more archetypal than fully fleshed out, this debut is a strong first effort marked by ambition and heart. In addition to its eeriness and suspense, it’s also incredibly humane, rendering even the more gonzo revelations palatable
A gripping mystery with historical and speculative-fiction flourishes that should captivate fans of all three genres.Pub Date: June 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0990421627
Page Count: 436
Publisher: Story Merchant
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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