A complex, cinematic, engrossing horror novel with thrills and chills galore.
Miners unearth an evil entity in Tracey’s horror novel.
An Ohio mining operation blasts out a basketball-size, glowing, red crystal orb from one of the salt rock faces thousands of feet beneath Lake Erie. The object begins leaking a black, skin-melting substance and emitting irradiated, laser-like flashes of “phantom energy” that incinerate everyone at the site. From the ashes of that horrific event emerges an ancient, inhuman creature bent on planetary destruction. Inexplicable events, including mysterious explosions, vanishing towns, mutilated corpses, societal unease and panic, and fires across the skies, become commonplace across the globe. Crime scene investigator Lori Cruz appears on the scene to solve a series of bloodless, surgically precise killings devoid of a motive or a murder suspect. Lori is aided by stoner collegiate cohorts and genius-grade scientific AI geeks Dimitri and Andy, and by expert mathematician Keenan, who’s developed a device to measure the saturation of paranormal energy. Together, they work to solve the riddle of this population decimation and stop it before civilization is completely ravaged by the evil entity (elegantly named Allister Smoke). Tracey expertly builds layer upon layer of dread, haunting suspense, and malevolence in the form of a shadowy, fedora-wearing specter with midnight-black eyes. While the exciting story never seems to slow down, some readers may feel that the novel is a tad overstuffed with details and superfluous exposition. Nevertheless, the pages fly by as the menacing apparition goes about systematically extinguishing all of the world’s minds and bodies. The story is marvelously character-driven with pitch perfect dialogue; the insidious supernatural elements are finely developed and sharpened with brutal precision. An expansive, devilishly creative, genre-bending work incorporating horror, fantasy, and science fiction elements, this 600-page doorstopper requires a healthy attention span and a true appreciation for all things sinister.
A complex, cinematic, engrossing horror novel with thrills and chills galore.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2022
ISBN: 9798364364210
Page Count: 614
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 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
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