An unthrilling thriller from the usually dependable Rose (The Halo Effect, 2004, etc.).
A world-shattering secret, the ire of the Catholic Church, a professor in mortal danger—no, it’s not The Da Vinci Code, but a pallid thriller on the mystery of reincarnation.
After Josh Ryder recovers from an almost fatal head injury, he finds he’s not been left with a neurological disorder (he’s had all the tests) but with a vivid recollection of being a pagan priest in fourth-century Rome. The visions are frightening experiences encroaching on his daily life, and so far the only help he’s gotten comes from the Phoenix Foundation, a New York group devoted to researching reincarnation. Josh and an associate travel on the Foundation’s behalf to Rome, where the tomb of a vestal virgin is being unearthed. The archeologists working the sight, Professors Rudolfo and Chase, have found the fabled memory stones, magic gems that enable the user to see his past lives (though considering the agony Josh experiences, and all the others seeking the Foundation’s help, it seems more a curse than a gift). Visiting the site, Josh has powerful flashbacks to his life as Julius and the tragic end of his lover Sabina, now mummified in the tomb. While Josh is in a tunnel, Rudolfo is shot and the memory stones are stolen, setting off a chain of events that lead Josh and Gabriella Chase (a young, attractive love interest) on a journey to discover the meaning of the stones. Back in New York, Josh is temporarily distracted by Rachel, a jewelry designer who lives with her uncle Alex (also obsessed with the idea of past lives) and is experiencing her own disconcerting episodes in which she is a 19th-century woman in mortal danger. Are Josh, Rachel, Rachel’s boyfriend Harrison, Julius, Sabina (and a few others) all connected? You bet they are, and conveniently they all live in New York. When Gabriella’s daughter is kidnapped by the stones’ new owner, Josh and Gabriella have but a few days to decipher the mantra that makes them work. A predictable “twist” at the end tops off a fairly unremarkable work that takes for granted that reincarnation is as dangerously exotic as the author thinks it is.
An unthrilling thriller from the usually dependable Rose (The Halo Effect, 2004, etc.).Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7783-2420-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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