An offbeat paranormal thriller that enthralls even as it sometimes meanders.
A medical student experiences an inexplicable connection to a mysterious nursing-home resident in Holder’s debut supernatural mystery novel.
Zoë Abrams is looking forward to her two-month geriatrics rotation at the Hampton Oaks nursing facility in New York. Even if her callous mentor, Jack Adams, has spent time in prison and rehab for cocaine and alcohol, Zoë enjoys working at Hampton Oaks with older patients. One patient in particular captures most of her attention: Virtually catatonic, John Asterman makes staff members uncomfortable, but Zoë feels a “remarkable sense of peace” in his presence and seemingly hears his thoughts. She wants to help him in whatever way she can, but, as his medical file is sparse, she must enlist her friends to investigate Asterman’s background. This only stirs up more questions: What was the significance of the bizarre lights seen in the sky the same year Asterman was admitted to Hampton Oaks? The leisurely paced tale hints at paranormal events as it progresses, from apparent telepathy to the possible presence of aliens and UFOs. Much of the story is veiled in mystery and unexplainable connections; it’s some time before readers learn whether Zoë’s recurring nightmare of her sad demise is a piece of the overall puzzle. At the same time, prolonged scenes with her friends, in which the characters exchange scary stories on Halloween or go on a date, do little to fuel the main plot. Suspense still manages to build once Steven Pratt, a dubious government investigator, begins to nose around Zoë and the people she knows (when Pratt questions an old man, the interviewee “knew with no uncertainty that he must remember the name or this obstinate man would beat him to a pulp”). This marks the introduction of violence to the story, including vicious profanity, a startling assault, and murder. But the narrative ultimately promotes benevolence, most strongly in the final act, which provides some much-needed answers.
An offbeat paranormal thriller that enthralls even as it sometimes meanders.Pub Date: March 31, 2022
ISBN: 9781800163294
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.
A sequel to The Grey Wolf (2024) that begins with the earlier novel’s last line: “We have a problem.” And what a problem it is.
Now that Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his allies in and out of the Sûreté du Québec have saved Canada’s water supply from poisoning on a grand scale, you might think they were entitled to some rest and relaxation in Three Pines. No such luck. Don Joseph Moretti, the Sixth Family head who ordered the hit-and-run on biologist Charles Langlois that nearly killed Gamache as well, is plotting still more criminal enterprises, and Gamache can’t be sure that Chief Inspector Evelyn Tardiff, who’s been cozying up to Moretti in order to get the goods on him, hasn’t gone over to the dark side herself. In fact, Gamache’s uncertainty about Evelyn sets the pattern for much of what follows, for another review of one of Langlois’ notebooks reveals a plot so monstrous that it’s impossible to be sure who’s not in on it. Is it really true, as paranoid online rumors have it, that “Canada is about to attack the U.S.”? Or is it really the other way around, as the discovery of War Plan Red would have it? As the threats loom larger and larger, they raise questions as to whether the Black Wolf, the evil power behind them, is Moretti, disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister Marcus Lauzon, whom Gamache has arranged to have released from prison, or someone even more highly placed. A brief introductory note dating Penny’s delivery of the uncannily prophetic manuscript to September 2024 will do little to assuage the anxieties of concerned readers.
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328175
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
At turns spooky and funny, with bits of inside baseball and a swimming pool’s worth of blood.
Hill, son of the master, turns in a near-perfect homage to Stephen King.
Arthur Oakes has problems. One is that his mom, a social justice warrior, has landed in the slammer for unintentional manslaughter. And he’s one of just three Black kids at an expensive college (in Maine, of course), an easy target. A local townie drug dealer extorts him into stealing rare books from the school’s library, including one bound in human skin. The unwilling donor of said skin turns up, and so do various sinister people, one reminiscent of Tolkien’s Gollum, another a hick who lives—well, sort of—to kill. Then there’s Colin Wren, whose grandfather collects things occult. As will happen, an excursion into that arcana conjures up the title character, a very evil dragon, who strikes an agreement with fine print requiring Arthur and his circle to provide him with a sacrifice every Easter. “It’s a bad idea to make a deal with them,” says Arthur, belatedly. “Language is one of their weapons…as much as the fire they breathe or the tail that can knock down a house.” King Sorrow roasts his first victims, and the years roll by, with Arthur becoming a medieval scholar (fittingly enough, with a critical scene set at King Arthur’s fortress at Tintagel), Colin a tech billionaire with Muskian undertones (“King Sorrow was a dragon, but Colin was some sort of dark sorcerer”), and others of their circle suffering from either messing with dragons or living in an America of despair. There’s never a dull moment, and though Hill’s yarn is very long, it’s full of twists and turns and, beg pardon, Easter eggs pointing to Kingly takes on politics, literature, and internet trolls (a meta MAGA remark comes from an online review of Arthur’s book on dragons: “i was up for a good book about finding magical sords and stabbing dragons and rescuing hot babes in chainmail panties but instead i got a lot of WOKE nonsense.…and UGH it just goes on and on, couldve been hundreds of pages shorter”).
At turns spooky and funny, with bits of inside baseball and a swimming pool’s worth of blood.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780062200600
Page Count: 896
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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