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The 13th
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John Everson, Author Leisure Books $7.99 (323p) ISBN 978-0-8439-6267-3 9780843962673
Award-winning author Everson's latest novel fails to live up to the reputation that two Bram Stoker Awards earned him. Twenty-five years after a bloody massacre, the Castle House Lodge has reopened as an asylum, with an unusual group of patients. Dr. Barry Rockford, a controversial MIT geneticist, has recruited some local thugs to abduct young women. Early on, the reader learns that Rockford's experiments involve impregnating his captives as part of a Satanic ritual. His activities initially fly beneath the radar, until new Castle Point Police Officer Christy Sorensen learns that a neighboring jurisdiction has experienced a rash of disappearances. Sorensen's inquiries lead her to the amateur sleuthing of bicyclist David Shale, who earns himself a job at the asylum as a handyman. At times Everson's prose is so over the top it's laughable, but it's the stock characters and situations that sink this average novel.
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Threshold
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Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor, Baen, $25 (320p) ISBN 9781439133606 9781439133606
The whole crew from Flint and Spoor’s Boundary are back. The perennially cash-strapped Ares Corporation, the only private agency in space, has teamed with the Interplanetary Research Institute, part of the United Nations, to exploit millennia-old alien technology in abandoned bases on Mars and Phobos. When they discover the existence of a third base on the asteroid Ceres, Ares seeks the help of the European Union and their ship Odin. An agreement is reached, but all is not what it seems; the EU has a hidden agenda, of which even the captain of the Odin is unaware. Tensions run high throughout the Ceres mission and finally come to a head causing things to spin out of control in ways no one could have predicted. This genial, fast-paced sci-fi espionage thriller is light in tone and hard on science and a fine choice for any collection. Despite a character list in the front, full enjoyment of this volume will depend on having already read the first. (June)
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Shadow’s Son
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Jon Sprunk, Pyr, $16 paper (280p) ISBN 9781616142018 9781616142018
Sprunk’s debut novel, filled with the clichés and conventions of heroic fantasy, is amateur in its originality. Caim is an assassin with a tragic and slightly mysterious background. Othir is Caim’s adopted city, a city populated entirely by villains and victims. Betrayed by his colleagues, Caim is left with Josephine, the daughter of the man who was to be Caim’s next victim, as an unwilling ally against hosts of conniving religious fanatics, conspirators, and evil rival assassins. Sprunk’s prose is leaden and riddled with lumps of tedious exposition, his characters are prototypes of the genre, and even his setting is the usual sort of degenerate, decaying imperial city—with no attempt to distinguish his version of this established trope. The result is a journey through a tired plot, with nothing particular to reward the reader for the time invested. (June)
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The Season of Risks: An Ethical Vampire Novel
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Susan Hubbard, Simon & Schuster, $14 paper (320p) ISBN 9781439183427 9781439183427
The third in Hubbard’s “Ethical Vampire” series (after The Year of Disappearances) will bewilder new readers. A contradiction is revealed (though not explained) in the preface: half-vampire protagonist Ariella Montero was born 15 years ago but this year “turned twenty-two.” Ari hopes, through an injection of Septimal, to age seven years, becoming more age-appropriate for Neil Cameron, a presidential candidate and vampire, but as she pursues her plan her life changes in unimaginable ways. The uneasy truce among three vampire factions threatens to break apart, with Ari an unwilling participant. Two renditions of a vampire folktale and her Professor of Japanese Culture’s exploration of the concept of wabi-sabi (imperfect beauty) engage the reader, while most of the paranormal aspects do not. Even fans of Hubbard’s cerebral and ethereal prose may find the book a slow and difficult read. (July)
One Touch of Scandal
Liz Carlyle, Avon, $7.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-196575-3 9780061965753
Carlyle's supernatural Victorian trilogy opener introduces a governess in desperate straits. Grace Gauthier is about to get engaged to her employer when someone murders him. Dodging suspicious police, Grace goes to a London gentlemen's club in search of a man who knew her father. Instead of finding the family friend, she encounters Lord Ruthveyn, a part-Indian war hero who agrees to help her prove her innocence by using his connections to thwart the efforts of the most determined investigators. The vibrant attraction between the two is complicated by Ruthveyn's psychic visions and his inability to "read" Grace's future. Grace's tenacity, wit, and compassion make her a very believable, multidimensional character and the perfect match for Ruthveyn's brooding and dark secrets. The romance sizzles, its unpredictability propelling this complex story far beyond its contemporaries. (Oct.)
Quarry's Ex
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Max Allan Collins, Hard Case Crime, $7.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-8439-6329-8 9780843963298
The ninth Quarry novel (after Quarry in the Middle) finds Jack Quarry, hit man with a difference, still going down a list of planned hits from his former boss, the Broker. He tracks down the Broker's targets and offers to remove the threat... for a fee. This time out it's 1980 and Quarry's in Boot Heel, Nev., a small gambling town where the latest target, director Arthur Stockwell, is filming an action movie. Quarry knows who the hit men are, but he doesn't know who ordered the hit. Suspects abound: Stockwell's betrayed wife, a spurned starlet, the mob boss financing the film. Quarry is discreet and up to the task, even when his own hated ex-wife turns out to be married to Stockwell. Fans will enjoy the violence, sex, and glimpses into Quarry's past in this perfect piece of sardonic pulp noir. (Oct.)
The Heir of Night: The Wall of Night, Book 1
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Helen Lowe, Eos, $7.99 (496p) ISBN 978-0-06-173404-5 9780061734045
New Zealand poet and novelist Lowe (Thornspell) turns in a mostly standard fantasy tale of awkward adolescents who struggle with their destined roles to save an embattled race from its ancient enemy. Malian is forced to navigate between the stern blood oath of the Derai and the burden of being the prophesied One-to-Come who will unite the separate Houses. Escaping the demonic assassins of the Darkswarm, she travels across the Derai's adopted world of Haarth seeking the lost artifacts of a legendary hero. Joining her are another exile and several Haarth natives with considerable powers. Lowe clearly portrays Malian's difficulties in leaving home and facing up to a vital if unwanted birthright, adding depth with descriptions of the stoic and proud Derai warrior culture. Though marketed to adults, this four-book series will appeal more to older teens. (Oct.)
The Spirit Thief
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Rachel Aaron, Orbit, $7.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-316-06905-2 9780316069052
After a slow start, debut author Aaron pulls the action together and turns in a romp of a lighthearted fantasy starring an absolutely darling rogue. Eli Monpress is a talented thief with a knack for persuasion and more than his fair share of looks and charisma, and his skill with magic makes him truly formidable. While trying to earn the title of the man with the biggest bounty on his head, Eli kidnaps the king of Mellinor, planning to let him go once the bounty goes up. Then the king's exiled brother pulls a fast one and takes over the kingdom, and Eli must make things right. Aaron's breezy style at times tends toward the farcical and absurd, which may not be what she intended but will keep humor-loving readers looking out for subsequent volumes in the planned trilogy. (Oct.)
Hungry for Your Love
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Edited by Lori Perkins, St. Martin's Griffin, $14.99 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-312-65079-7 9780312650797
Perkins (Cowboy Lover) collects 21 zombie romance stories full of humor, horror, and love. Jaime Saare's "I Heart Brains" has an SF twist: a man infected with "the z-virus" shopping in a megamart for a gently used replacement body. In Jan Kozlowski's powerful "First Love Never Dies," a police detective learns of an undead sex slave operation run by his ex's abusive father. In Regina Riley's poignant "Undying Love," a long-suffering zombie seeks his lost lover. Gina McQueen's "Apocalypse as Foreplay," Jeanine McAdam's "Inhuman Resources," and Dana Fredsti's "First Date" are zippy stories about the sexy turn-on of successful zombie hunting. Stacy Brown's "The Magician's Apprentice" offers chills as a woman willingly gives up every bit of herself to please a man. Michael Marshall Smith's "Later" makes one man's heartbreak palpable when his girlfriend has a fatal accident. Voodoo magic, zombie-creating viruses, and inexplicable zombie apocalypses all make appearances, but effective storytelling moves beyond the reanimation and into the hearts and minds of the characters. (Oct.)
Petty Magic
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Camille DeAngelis, Crown?Shaye Areheart, $24 (336p) ISBN 978-0-307-45423-2 9780307454232
Readers who endure the extensive Lake Wobegon–style exposition that launches DeAngelis's second novel (where every witch is above average) will be rewarded with a moving and witty love story. Evelyn is a randy old witch who uses her powers to appear young and pick up men at bars. When she meets Justin, the new proprietor of a local antique shop, she believes that he may be the reincarnation of her long-lost love, Jonah. Eve's narration alternates between the present-day romance and WWII spy stories as members of her coven come out with a shocking accusation against her sister, Helena. DeAngelis (Mary Modern) gives Eve an engaging narrative voice, though the frequent use of British terms like "loo," "gent," and "mobile" is jarring given Eve's supposed American origins. These minor flaws detract only slightly from the core stories of love and deceit, enhanced by DeAngelis's charming prose. (Oct.)
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