Warts and all, this is required reading for fans of vintage noir.
Hard Case resurrects a dark tale that noir master Woolrich (1903–1968) left unfinished at his death, was completed 20 years afterward by Block, but has been unavailable for more than 35 years.
Driven to the edge of suicide, Madeline Chalmers miraculously finds herself still alive when her late father’s gun, which she’s raised to her head, clicks on an empty chamber—then, jubilant, places it emphatically on a table and hears it fire, killing Starr Bartlett, a neighbor she’s never met who happens to be passing on the city street outside. Consumed with guilt and determined to “live for Starr,” Madeline worms her way into the confidence of Starr’s mother, Charlotte, and learns everything she can about the young woman she killed. She decides to take revenge on singer Adelaide Nelson, who’d told Starr a terrible secret about her husband, Vick Herrick, that had abruptly ended Starr’s marriage after less than two years—and, even more improbably, to track down Vick in order to kill him. The rest of the story, taking its cue from earlier Woolrich novels from The Bride Wore Black to Rendezvous in Black, follows Madeline as she works assiduously to visit doom on Adelaide, the other woman, and Vick himself. Although there’s no editorial apparatus helping readers determine what Block added to what Woolrich had written, their two voices blend seamlessly in a claustrophobic pulp nightmare until the final sequence, which manages to be both more shocking and more softhearted than the endings of any of Woolrich’s other novels. Readers will have no trouble figuring out why the author had trouble completing this one.
Warts and all, this is required reading for fans of vintage noir.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781803366999
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Hard Case Crime
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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
Fast-moving fun and a highly creative plot.
Bloody murder spoils folks’ fun while megafauna return from extinction.
What a glorious way to spend a honeymoon: Mark and Olivia Gunnerson go backpacking through the vast Erebus Resort in the mountains of Colorado, where scientists have “de-extincted” species like the woolly mammoth and other Pleistocene megafauna. Just watch the peaceful beasts at their watering holes. Behold the giant armadillos, and the indricothere that make mammoths look like dwarfs. The scientists have removed genes for aggression in these re-creations, so humans will be safe unless they’re accidentally stepped on. And yet, someone doesn’t want the newlyweds camping there, made evident by their disappearance without a trace, save only a copious amount of blood outside their tent. Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent in Charge Frankie Cash takes the case. What happened to Mark and Olivia, and why? The park has no predators, so humans must be responsible. But where are the bodies? A doctor suggests that due to the amount of blood found, the victims may have—gasp!—been decapitated. The matter gathers national attention, and things only get worse as more people die. The late groom’s aggrieved billionaire father demands immediate answers, and of course he interferes with the investigation: “You’ll see me now, you son of a bitch, and tell me what the fuck you’re doing to find my son!” And speaking of F-bombs, surely it is possible to write a thriller with fewer—maybe use one or two to establish a character and then move on to more creative language? Anyway, the investigators are doing a lot. The action seldom lets up, and readers will feel the mounting tension and excitement. The setting itself is a scientific wonder, and it must tie into the murders somehow. Meanwhile, Hollywood is filming an action movie in the park, and the pièce de résistance will be the spectacular explosion of a train. But wouldn’t you know, Preston has other plans. Imagine Jurassic Park with the timeline brought forward to the Pleistocene, and you have the Erebus Resort. Science, imagination, storytelling, and action are all here.
Fast-moving fun and a highly creative plot.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780765317704
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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