cover image The Painted Bride

The Painted Bride

Stephen Gallagher, . . Subterranean, $40 (177pp) ISBN 978-1-59606-071-5

British author Gallagher's unrelenting novel of terror, set on an unprepossessing stretch of English coast, moves at a breakneck pace. Car dealer Frank Tanner's wife, Carol, is missing. Carol's 26-year-old sister, Molly Gideon, a recovered junkie, is sure her cold, violent brother-in-law has killed Carol. One suggestive piece of evidence in the case is a painting by Jack, Frank's six-year-old son, showing a sprawled body with an emergent rainbow that just might represent a shower of arterial blood. The boy insists that it is "a picture of mummy." Cold-blooded murders follow in the race to the climax. Chalk up another winner—brief, merciless and punchy—for Gallagher (The Spirit Box ). (Oct.)