An enjoyable tale of self-discovery and suspense set in a hostile small town.
This paranormal mystery sees a young woman with psychic abilities become the prime suspect in a murder.
Scarlet “Red” Hooper moves from town to town, living out of her brightly painted camper van, aka Bubbles. Red, 28, has been in Hope Harbor, Washington, for a month, working at the five-and-dime, saving money for a new car battery and fridge. When she comes into the store one morning, she stumbles on Murray, the resident handyman, lying murdered in the back room. Murray was a sleaze and not liked in town. Still, the majority of Hope Harbor’s 534 residents—the town’s marshal, among them—are inclined to suspect Red of the homicide. Their suspicions are not allayed by her past history. Since her grandmother died and bequeathed Bubbles to her, Red has played a part in unmasking several murderers in the towns she’s passed through. Though her family tried to keep it from her, Red has psychic abilities that are brought out by fire. She’d rather be normal; she doesn’t want the visions. But as town sentiment mounts against her, Red’s only shot at freedom might be to solve the murder herself. But what of Hope Harbor’s most eligible bachelor, who starts courting Red even though she all but publicly accused him of the crime? Is he really on her side, or are his motives sinister? To find out, Red must come to terms with her psychic gift—and reconcile with her estranged sister when she breezes into town. In this series opener, Roberts writes in the third person past tense from Red’s point of view. The prose is accomplished and the dialogue, unobtrusive. Red emerges as a strong, likable protagonist dealt a bad hand but determined to be her own person. The characterization of Hope Harbor’s populace is less subtle. The town’s residents exhibit behavior gravitating toward stereotyped, close-minded antagonism. This adds to the oppressive sense of gathering injustice but nevertheless comes across as a tad manufactured. Red’s interactions with her sister feel more real and are astutely handled. The mystery itself strikes a nice balance between signposted developments and genuine surprises. The story moves unhurriedly yet with purpose, keeping readers engaged and invested. Overall, the author’s fans will be well satisfied.
An enjoyable tale of self-discovery and suspense set in a hostile small town.Pub Date: March 22, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 327
Publisher: Carina Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
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