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
A pulpy throwback that shines a light on abuses even magic can’t erase.
Hung out to dry by the elders who betrayed them, a squad of pregnant teens fights back with old magic.
Hendrix has a flair for applying inventive hooks to horror, and this book has a good one, chock-full with shades of V.C. Andrews, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Foxfire, to name a few. Our narrator, Neva Craven, is 15 and pregnant, a fate worse than death in the American South circa 1970. She’s taken by force to Wellwood House in Florida, a secretive home for unwed mothers where she’s given the name Fern. She’ll have the baby secretly and give it up for adoption, whether she likes it or not. Under the thumb of the house’s cruel mistress, Miss Wellwood, and complicit Dr. Vincent, Neva forges cautious alliance with her fellow captives—a new friend, Zinnia; budding revolutionary Rose; and young Holly, raped and impregnated by the very family minister slated to adopt her child. All seems lost until the arrival of a mysterious bookmobile and its librarian, Miss Parcae, who gives the girls an actual book of spells titled How To Be a Groovy Witch. There’s glee in seeing the powerless granted some well-deserved payback, but Hendrix never forgets his sweet spot, lacing the story with body horror and unspeakable cruelties that threaten to overwhelm every little victory. In truth, it’s not the paranormal elements that make this blast from the past so terrifying—although one character evolves into a suitably scary antagonist near the end—but the unspeakable, everyday atrocities leveled at children like these. As the girls lose their babies one by one, they soon devote themselves to secreting away Holly and her child. They get some help late in the game but for the most part they’re on their own, trapped between forces of darkness and society’s merciless judgement.
A pulpy throwback that shines a light on abuses even magic can’t erase.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593548981
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
