A well-told story of unhealthy obsession and horror with a chilling twist.
A troubled couple’s bed-and-breakfast weekend turns into a nightmare in Kherbash’s horror yarn.
It sounds romantic—a couple’s return visit to a quaint bed-and-breakfast to make more happy memories. Here, the author takes a darker view. No need to wait for hints about where this dark novella, a disturbing portrait of a marriage in crisis, is heading; from the start, an atmosphere of horror creeps steadily through the pages. Clueless Nolan hopes that surprising his wife, Emma, with a getaway to the Tappy West Creek Bed & Breakfast inn will bring her out of her oppressive grief stemming from a second miscarriage. The first disquieting note: The reception area is oddly quiet, filled with cascading potted plants, “dim in the transient hour between late afternoon and early evening, when an amber shade steals over every inch of wall and furniture.” The inn is closed, says the establishment’s new owner, Leah. (Is the off-putting, coy, and cold Leah the source of the pervasive “loamy, sulfurous odor”?) And then there are the baby dolls, gradually multiplying in various rooms; walls sprout unpleasant, fleshy fungi, and the wallpaper’s roses appear to have eyes. Demoralized and vulnerable to Leah’s unhealthy manipulation, Emma views her own body as “a cruel tally of failed pregnancies and deflated hope,” and her self-doubt causes her to suspect that her husband is unfaithful. Here and there, Kherbash slyly undermines readers’ sympathy for Nolan, making clear that he disregards what she feels: “We’re here because I want to go back to where we were last year—before the pregnancy and the false hopes. I want to erase them. I want a do-over,” he says to himself. Nolan’s attempts to reestablish closeness with his wife drive her further away as Leah uses Emma’s grief, her yearning for a baby, and her dwindling self-confidence to poison her against her husband, leading to a disturbing, fevered scenario of twisted seduction and a shocking entrapment.
A well-told story of unhealthy obsession and horror with a chilling twist.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798986669540
Page Count: 90
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
