This meticulously crafted, sad, and verbose crime story requires a patient reader.
In Litton’s trilogy-concluding thriller, an evil presence holds a small Kansas town in its grip.
It’s October 1934, and drought and falling wheat prices are taking their toll on the farming community of Elim, Kansas, sowing seeds of desperation and despair. In a vacant schoolhouse, on a drizzly Saturday night, six friends—including town barber and mayor Pup Sorell—meet for a spirited night of poker and banter until a masked gunman kicks in the door, takes all the money, and locks them in the storm cellar. Although nobody is physically hurt, the robbery sets off a chain reaction of suspicion and vengeance. The cast includes Faris Clayton, a high-school senior and soulful philosopher; Father James Patrick Nolan, the town’s spiritually haunted Catholic Priest, who seeks solace in the writings of St. Augustine but finds comfort only in Pup’s moonshine; and Elle Wales, an innocent 14-year-old girl. Pup’s barbershop is the social hub of the town, and Pup is the dispenser of news, gossip, and cheer—until he is not. The slowly unwinding narrative, written in the vernacular and cadence of its setting (as when a character describes a foul odor as “like a hind whiff of the old schoolmarm”), is a character-driven tale that overflows with details of the period’s economic devastation, news of the day, and the specifics of the many poker games organized by Pup. The specter of death hangs over the novel from the opening scene, which depicts the murder of Gene Moot, a local bootlegger. Thought-provoking, mystical ponderings begin and end the chapters, paralleling the mental anguish and gradual psychological deterioration of several primary characters as they are felled by the demons of guilt. However, in terms of the progression of the narrative, they are digressions that interrupt the action.
This meticulously crafted, sad, and verbose crime story requires a patient reader.Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781637897096
Page Count: 497
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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