Strange characters and situations abound, but never quite live up to their zany potential.
In Guise’s novel, a pair of twins avenge their murdered father, starting a chain reaction of off-kilter events taking readers to hell and back.
In an unnamed town in the late 20th century, the local butcher’s apprentice, Danny Pigou, decides to kill the butcher to earn money and status for his family—most notably for his twin sons, Rory and Charles. Danny’s plot, however, only results in his own untimely death, and about 20 years later, the twins head into the butcher’s shop looking for revenge, and they get it; however, they’re spotted by local busybody Mrs. Bumblewood. The next morning, Charles goes to purchase an expensive abstract painting by rising artist Benjamin Klumpp, who mostly spends his days thinking about the things he hates most about women and relaxing in his bathtub. Soon, the often-drunk police detective Boyle is on the twins’ trail for the butcher’s murder, forcing them to seek refuge at the remote farm home of their dear murderous Aunt Bev; meanwhile, the butcher they murdered arrives in hell, where he’s just in time for tea and poker. The events in Guise’s novel flow chaotically, with characters popping in and out of the twins’ orbit, often with violent results. It all leads to a lively manifesto on life by the Devil himself. In the end, Guise’s story falls somewhere between a violent Coen Brothers movie, such as Fargo (1996), and Eugène Ionesco’s absurdism. It often feels as if new characters wander, lost, onto the page, make some strange announcements, and then awkwardly retreat. However, despite all the madcap fun and humor these surreal situations could offer, the proceedings frequently lack energy and don’t follow through on their bizarre premises. (Even a character’s beheading comes off as a mere detail, rather than a shock.) The butcher himself describes it best, while reflecting on life as nothing more than, “a series of disjointed happenings and accumulated waves.”
Strange characters and situations abound, but never quite live up to their zany potential.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781777959838
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Bear Skin Bob Press
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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