– Stephen King
In this post, I’ll wrap up the books that managed to drag my attention away from YouTube in May, and suggest a few to pick up or to avoid.
We’ll check in with Lucy Westnerna as she tries to keep Dracula from reforming and ruining her life again; hang out with Detective Robicheaux as he defeats a plot to unearth Nazi submariner skeletons; get a little bored by whatever is creeping around the Scottish moors (secretly hoping it’s David Hasselhoff); and watch Amos Decker save the day again, with a little help from his cyborg friend Will Robie.
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Happy Reading, Friends!
“A novel inspired by the untold stories of forgotten women in classic literature–from Lucy Westnera, a victim of Stoker’s Dracula, and Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester’s attic-bound wife in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre–as they band together to combat the toxic men bent on destroying their lives, set against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, 1967.
Reluctant Immortals is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.
Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion, Reluctant Immortals is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they bravely claim their own destiny in a man’s world.”
I enjoyed the concept of catching up with the women characters from some classic fiction, but I wanted more from the plot here. Most of the story consists of Lucy trying to keep Dracula from re-combining his ashes and annoying the world again with his fangs. There’s lots of running away and internal angst from all the characters.
I wanted Lucy and Bertha to have strengthened and found their way in the world, rather than be constantly looking over their shoulders for their old haunts. I also would have liked to explore more of the afterlife concept in this world – the suspended waiting room that they appear in if they get killed, was a neat idea.
Overall this was a nice way to pop in and reconnect with some well-known characters, but it lacked the edge I was looking for. I would try another of Kiste’s books though, as the writing flowed well.
“It’s out there, under the salt of the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast–a buried Nazi submarine. Detective Dave Robicheaux of the New Ibera Sheriff’s office has known of its existence since childhood, when he was terrified by nightmares of the evil Nazi sailors just offshore. Then, as a teenager, he stumbled upon the sunken sub while scuba diving–but for years he kept the secret of its watery grave.
… And now he must face the terrible reality.
But decades later, when a powerful Jewish activist wants the sub raised, Robicheaux’s knowledge puts him at the center of a terrifying struggle of conflicting desires. A neo-Nazi psychopath named Will Buchalter, who insists that the Holocaust was a hoax, wants to find the submarine first–and he’ll stop at nothing to get Robicheaux to talk.”
“Mike Carter and his girlfriend Helen, along with their friends Alex and Kay, travel to a remote loch side cottage for a post-graduation holiday. But their celebrations are short-lived when they hit and kill a stag on the road.
Alex’s sister Meggie awaits them in the cottage, adding to the tension when her dog, Oscar, goes missing. Mike becomes haunted by a disturbing presence in the cottage, and is hunted by threatening figures in the highland fog.
Reeling from a shock revelation, Mike begins to lose his grip on his sanity. As the dark secrets of the past conspire to destroy the bonds of friendship, Mike must uncover the terrifying truth dwelling within the walls of Hearthstone Cottage.”
“When Amos Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are called to London, North Dakota, they instantly sense that the thriving fracking town is ripe for trouble. The promise of a second gold rush has attracted an onslaught of newcomers all hoping for a windfall, and the community is growing faster than houses can be built. The sudden boom has also brought a slew of problems with it, including drugs, property crimes, prostitution–and now murder.
Decker and Jamison are ordered to investigate the death of a young woman named Irene Cramer, whose body was expertly autopsied and then dumped in the open–which is only the beginning of the oddities surrounding the case. As Decker and Jamison dig into Irene’s life, they are shocked to discover that the woman who walked the streets by night as a prostitute was a teacher for a local religious sect by day–a sect operating on land once owned by a mysterious government facility that looms over the entire community.
London is a town replete with ruthless business owners, shady government officials, and religious outsiders, all determined to keep their secrets from coming out. When other murders occur, Decker will need all of his extraordinary memory and detective skills, and the assistance of a surprising ally, to root out a killer and the forces behind Cramer’s death . . . before the boom town explodes.”
