A brisk, enjoyable supernatural tale of black magic and powerful spells.
In this paranormal sequel, an immortal witch’s past and present collide as an old enemy seeks revenge.
Travis Coman, like other witches, feeds on “mortal essence.” This typically kills mortals, but Travis, a psychologist in Bucharest, Romania, uses an orb and ancestral magic to ingest patients’ essences nonlethally. It’s a way for his coven and mortals to peacefully coexist, alleviating witches’ fears of detection. Sadly, as Travis is still perfecting this technique, the orb seemingly infects recent patient Marku Catargiu with a murderous demon. By the time Travis realizes a student named Andrei may also be infected, the young man and his father, Stefan, are in Sussex, Vermont—the place the witch first experimented with his family’s magic. Travis and his female friend and fellow witch Sorinah make the overseas trip to cast the demon out, unaware that a vengeance-minded witch awaits them in Vermont. This elaborate revenge scheme against Travis also involves local mortal Rachel, whose recurring nightmares amazingly lead her to a body—possibly that of her best friend who disappeared four years ago. Travis fights to save Andrei as well as protect himself and his Sussex friends before the evil witch hurts anyone. Gabriel’s story moves at an impressive pace. Despite abundant dialogue tying this narrative to the first installment, scenes and conversations are effectively concise. Even readers new to the series will easily follow the mostly linear plot. Action comes in quick bursts and comprises such entertaining bits as a witch capable of “shifting”—inhabiting an animal with a vicious bite. Standouts among the solid cast include smart and reliable Sorinah, often the voice of reason (even when using witches’ telepathic “transference”), and Rachel, whose haunting dreams may indicate a psychic ability. The engaging story boasts gleeful twists and betrayals, though some readers will see them coming. The ending opens intriguing doors for further installments.
A brisk, enjoyable supernatural tale of black magic and powerful spells.Pub Date: May 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-9979449-5-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gramercy Fiction
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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