Kingston Lakes is a quiet town. During long summer days, the residents barely have a care. They almost never have to worry about the rise of a bloodthirsty demon who wants to feast on their flesh and enslave their immortal souls.
Almost never. Views: 8
After years on the run, Burke is desperate to return to his native New York, the only way he can reconnect with his outlaw "family." But to survive in their part of the City, where reputation is everything, Burke must take major risks to reestablish his presence. So when a Mafia man contacts him about the murder-as-message of his sixteen-year-old daughter - the offspring of what he calls an "outside the tribe" affair that he must keep secret at all costs - Burke's depleted bankroll persuades him to step out of the shadows and do something he hasn't done in years...actually investigate a crime.Burke needs cover to penetrate the teenage subculture of the Long Island town where the girl lived and died, so he puts together a crew of gifted role-players, including a pair of lesbian "power exchangers" who market their special brand of sex on the Internet. When Burke himself surfaces as a casting director, seeking tomorrow's stars for a movie to be shot on location, the investigation quickly spins off into uncharted depths. What he discovers is a new kind of filmmaking, a new kind of violence, and a predator unlike any he's ever known. When they meet head-on over a brutal work of cinema verite, only one of them will survive the final cut. Views: 8
Amazon.com ReviewThe main protagonist of River of Darkness is a Scotland Yard detective so damaged by his experiences during the First World War that his superiors worry about his ability to do his job. This may sound like Madden is sent to a town in Surrey where a local family has been massacred in what looks like a robbery gone wrong. He finds enough echoes of his recent battlefield experiences to conclude that the killer was just one man--most likely a former soldier using a bayonet. As for motive, it could well be perverse sexual passion, that "river of darkness" to which a psychologist introduces him. We meet the killer early on, watch him as he maintains a rigid control over every aspect of his life, then stare in horror as he periodically explodes into mad violence. Unlike Madden, this man has not been severely damaged or changed by the war; he has simply used it to channel and redirect his dark river. Airth's point--that survival comes in many shapes and sizes--gives a solid foundation to an impressive leap of imagination. --Dick AdlerFrom Library JournalSo you thought British detectives had to focus on "the colonel in the drawing room with a candlestick" solutions? Newcomer Airth blasts that stereotype with this tale of serial murder set in post-World War I Britain, featuring the debut of Inspector John Madden, a veteran whose experiences in the trenches give him an edge in tracking and capturing the killer. Meanwhile, Dr. Helen Blackwell entices Madden to employ psychiatric theories shunned at the time by Scotland Yard to explain and predict the killer's behavior. Airth develops a situation that presages today's much-touted psychological profiling and serves to build an almost excruciatingly suspenseful plot. In addition, his deft handling of the emotional aftereffects of war gives the work an added sense of purpose. Fans of Thomas Harris will enjoy this book and can take heart in knowing that another Madden tale is already in the works.ANancy McNicol, Hagaman Memorial Lib., East Haven, CT Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 8
The unflappable Inspector George Gently has become a household name through the hit BBC TV series starring Martin Shaw. These are the original books on which the TV series was based, although the George Gently in Alan Hunter's whodunits is somewhat different to his TV counterpart. He is more calculating, more analytical, and his investigations are even more enthralling. In this title:Who has been murdered? Where is the crime scene? Where is the body? All Gently has to go on is an anonymously delivered photograph of a corpse. The photograph of the corpse, shot in the head and lying in a forest clearing, comes with no explanation or identification other than the East Anglian postmark on the envelope. The first thing that Gently has to find out is whether a crime has actually been committed. Is it some kind of cruel hoax or has a hideous murder been committed at a woodland beauty spot? Exactly where is the crime scene, where is the body... Views: 8
From Rhys Bowen, the author of In Farleigh Field, comes the next Molly Murphy mystery: The Ghost of Christmas Past.Semi-retired private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is suffering from depression after a miscarriage following her adventure in San Francisco during the earthquake of 1906. She and her husband, Daniel, are invited for Christmas at a mansion on the Hudson, and they gratefully accept, expecting a peaceful and relaxing holiday season. Not long after they arrive, however, they start to feel the tension in the house's atmosphere. Then they learn that the host couple's young daughter wandered out into the snow ten years ago and was never seen again. Molly can identify with the mother's pain at never knowing what happened to her child and wants to help, but there is so little to go on. No ransom note. No body ever found. But Molly slowly begins to suspect that the occupants of the house know more than they are letting on. Then, on Christmas... Views: 8
