RED UNICORN

A Vietnam veteran and an enigmatic woman hurtle toward an uncertain destiny in this dark, supernatural thriller.

Tennessee-born Amboy Stevens has made a life as a miner in Argentina. On an autumn day in 1982, he agrees to pay off a debt by helping fellow American Lettie Fennick. Lettie is a redheaded Black woman with partial amnesia and, just like Amboy, six fingers on each hand. While the Vietnam vet finds and brings Lettie to relative safety, myriad groups are apparently after her, from the CIA to a Nazi cult. Amboy is mostly in the dark; he doesn’t know what exactly the figures are chasing or if their intentions are noble or sinister. But he fights to protect Lettie as the two gradually fall for each other. They dodge gunfire, vicious torturers, and horrid, baleful creatures that appear to be made of sticks. Amboy and Lettie, desperate for answers, rush to a place where they hope to unearth the things she can’t remember. But what awaits the pair is not something Amboy likely anticipated. Ochse shrouds this novel in mystery. Notwithstanding Amboy’s distaste for “cryptic conversations,” he rarely has any other kind, as characters’ agendas are either vague or unknown. A rich atmosphere nevertheless permeates the story; everywhere Amboy and Lettie go seems treacherous and rife with untrustworthy people—dangers that some try to warn the vet about. The couple’s growing romance is convincing, while the engaging tale intermittently dives into Amboy’s past, some of which has curious ties to the present day. Short bursts of action, such as Amboy speeding down the road on a commandeered motorcycle, keep the story moving at a steady clip. And readers finally get some answers in the searing climax as Amboy and Lettie face their shocking fates.

An unremittingly bleak, engrossing, and ferocious tale of an inevitable and potentially dangerous future.