The Toll by Cherie Priest

The Toll by Cherie Priest is southern gothic horror that leaves out the essential piece of a horror story. The creature, the myth, the monster…the horror.

Summary

“…The radio didn’t have any music. It only had a voice, whispering harsh and slow.
…the things I take…
Dave flailed for the knob, but it moved under his fingers like a planchette on a Ouija board. It found the spot it wanted, and it spoke again.
…are mine to keep…
‘But you didn’t take me. You didn’t catch me. You didn’t keep me,’ he said to the radio, or to whoever was speaking through it. Whatever was speaking. He didn’t know if he was right or not, or if the speaker could hear him, but he swore at it anyway. He threw the Jeep back into gear and said, ‘Fuck this.’
But as Dave sped into Betty and Boomer’s wake, back toward Staywater, the voice rasped again. This things I take are mine to keep…”

Titus and Melanie Bell are on their honeymoon, planning to canoe in the Okefenokee Swamp, driving along State Road 177 in Georgia. Along the way they cross over six bridges and when they come to the seventh bridge, a rickety thing with only room for one vehicle to cross, reality begins to change. When Titus awakes he is on the ground outside the car and Melanie is no where in sight. As he searches and calls for help the police come and then they tell Titus, there is no seventh bridge.

In the quiet and strange little town of Staywater, the residents know that every thirteen years someone goes missing. That the swamp or whatever lives there takes someone. The two old women who live with a young teenage boy thought they had killed it but it seems to have returned. The young barmaid and the boyfriend she saved from it, the last time it appeared knows that it is back. Even the police know that something takes people in the swamp and yet no one seems to know just what it is or how to kill it.

What they do know is that it is back and it is ready to feed again.

Review

This may be the most unfulfilling horror book I have read in a long time. It is full of cliches and questions with no answers and when it does offer one up, it only leads to so many more questions. As for the thing under the bridge, it never does really say what it is. As for how two old women came to raise a young man who as a child just showed up on their doorstep, how did he just show up and just what is his role in all of this? Are those two old women witches or something more? The young barmaid who traded in her young cousin to the thing under the bridge to save the life of a handsome young man who barely notices her. And what is she exactly? Another witch or something more?

The Toll feels like a second installment in a Trilogy but we are missing book one that sets all this up. And come one, a creature who comes out every generation or so to feed on the innocent? I am so over “IT”.

Pass on this one.

Button Man by Andrew Gross

Button Man by Andrew Gross is a tale of corruption and crime and the strength of a family trying to hold themselves together in the gangland infested garment district of New York City in the early 1920s and 1930s. It is a quintessential novel of America that has been absent from our bookshelves for far too long.

Summary

“…Let me go, please!’ Bella wrenched herself out of Mr. Mandelbaum’s grip. She ran over and kneeled above her son, put out her hand and gently touched his shoes, his bare leg, his face, softly stained with blood. His smooth, red cheek. ‘Shemuel,’ she said again, stroking his face.
She knew there was no life in him.
And Harold, burying his face in her skirt, tears streaming down his cheeks. ‘I’m sorry, Momma,’ he said, his arms wrapped tightly around her. ‘I’m sorry,’ he kept saying. ‘I’m sorry.’
A dim voice whispered faintly inside her: My little boy, it said, as she stroked Shemuel’s face, knowing his soul had already left him. My little boy…”

The Rabinowitz family grew up poor on the Lower East Side when tragedy struck with the accidental death of one of the four sons, Shemuel. Soon after their father died as well and the remaining boys had to leave behind their own dreams and provide for the rest of the family. Sol, the oldest had always dreamed of going to college but he would have to leave that behind to find himself a job and the youngest, Morris began to look for a trade as well. The middle son, Harry, the remaining half of twins always had his head elsewhere, and holding a job was trouble for him. Harry had always blamed himself for his twin, Shemuel, death.

When at the age of twelve, Morris is apprenticed to a garment cutter in a clothing factory he finds his calling. Sol finishes enough of college to become an accountant and Harry falls in with the local gang, hanging out at nightclubs and committing petty crimes. Soon, Morris learns enough of the garment trade to dream of being his own boss and with Sol, the begin a company called the Raab Brothers and start their own line of fur trimmed coats. Harry decides to not be a part of his brother’s venture, preferring the loose life of bootleggers and speakeasys.

It is the Roaring Twenties, a time of great opportunity in America. But it is also the time of Murder Incorporated and the garment industry is being squeezed by the Union, backed by Mob muscle. Soon the little company Morris and Sol began is getting too big to go unnoticed. Soon, the Mob will come knocking at their door. First with Union papers and then with pipes and then with knives and then, guns.

Review

I have read several Andrew Gross novels in years pass but they could not have prepared me for the epic storytelling of Button Man. This is the story of a man, a family, a people, a time, a city and a country. It is epic and yet so very intimate in its scope. The story of Morris Raab and his success, failure and success again is the story of America. A story of perseverance and of struggle that is disappearing from the lexicon of American values.

It is also the story of a turbulent and violent time in New York City history and of a group of men who are not as well know as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone but were just as deadly and held the city in its stranglehold. Of a corrupt union and the men who wielded the lie of power to destroy the American dream.

This book reminds me of the novels of the 1970s and 1980s that became mini-series on TV, like Captain and Kings or Once an Eagle. Stories that wove history and real people in with characters that spoke of a very human experience.

This type of novel is very different from Andrew Gross’s early work and for my taste, it is a serious step up and forward in literary craftmanship. I am thinking that I need very much, to look back at some of his recent novels to see what exactly I have missed.

Button Man is a very good read.

The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton

The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton is the book every parent should buy their son. The Perfect Girlfriend is the text book on obsession, delusion and the lengths love can go to.

Summary –

“…Goodbye, Elizabeth.’
Elizabeth, indeed, for fuck’s sake! What had happened to Lily, babe, darling, sweetheart? He kissed me on the forehead and let himself out, shutting the door quietly behind him. Silence echoed, I gazed out the window, through the blur of raindrops, and watched as his tail lights disappeared, bubbling with fresh rage and humiliation. I loved him and yet I’d been unable to stop him making the biggest mistake of his life. He was mine. As I sat there-mentally deflating on the hardbacked sofa-it was then that my Plan of Action had been born. Elizabeth/Lily was disappearing into her cocoon and waiting to emerge as Juliette…”

Nate is handsome, well off and a successful airline pilot. He dated Elizabeth for a short time but she turned very controlling and it didn’t take long for the shine of their relationship to wear off and for Nate to realize that Elizabeth was not really who she pretended to be. So Nate moved her out and helped her get settled in a new place and though he said they would stay friends, tried his best to never see her again. But Nate underestimated Juliette.

Juliette loves Nate and knows that she is what is best for him. She knows that Nate loves her as well, he just needs to learn that he does. Juliette also has the keys to Nate’s home and all his passwords. He never changed them when he moved her out. She also found this cool app that allows her to track his calls and his GPS to let her know where he is at all times, and with who. Juliette has a plan and she will have Nate back and he will be hers.

Juliette is the Perfect Girlfriend and in time, she will be Nate’s perfect wife.

Review –

Karen Hamilton has written JAWS in the form of a young woman. Juliette is relentless, single-minded and with the righteous fervor of a religious zealot. She loves Nate and she knows that he belongs with her. The lengths she is willing to go to and the laws she is will to break are trifles in her mind. Juliette is convinced that not only is it in Nate’s best interest to be with her, but that it will do him harm to be without her.

The novel is told through the eyes and voice of Juliette and it is frightening to behold. More so because it comes off as being so right and logical. If she wasn’t so openly manipulative, the reader might actually be cheering for her. Instead, there is some self realization that she is not as crazy as we would like her to. That Juliette is a lot more like ourselves than we care to admit.

A beautifully crafted and written novel of terror and love.

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht is a gorgeous little novel about monsters and betrayal and the darkness of the soul that plots the revenge of not just one self, but of an entire family. It is in short, a terrific gothic tale that cries out for Vincent Price to narrate it in your mind.

Summary

“…A creature newly named is a creature still half-animal, and Johann’s self-education made generous space for the use of tools and the vice of violence before he could learn regret. He learned lessons like this:

A man wrenching fingers in his hair. Forcing him to the ground. Forcing a lot of other things, too, all the while grunting and pressing bloody little half circles in his shoulders. When it was over Johann was left lying in a puddle of his own sweat and piss, staring at a very large sharp rock. Without his thinking about it, his fingers closed around the rock and he stumbled to his feet.

He found the man and kicked him in the nose, bashed his face with the sharp rock, and ground his heel into his windpipe, relishing the muted snap of cartilage and all the delightful little croaks that bubbled up and out of the man’s mouth. When the man stopped moving, Johann used the rock on his face until it wasn’t a face anymore. He stared at the blood and pressed a stained palm to his heart. He panted heavily, in time with the flutter between his ribs.

Power was sweeter than apples. It was cheaper than water, and sustained the soul twice as well. If Johann was going to be a Thing with a name, then from now on he would be a Thing with power, too…”

Johann grew in the back alleys and filth of Elendhaven until he became the Thing he was named. A monster who kills but cannot be killed. Though he tried to kill himself over and over again. He became something different than what he had been born. But such things happen in Elendhaven.

The city of Elendhaven sits on the edge of the ocean, ravaged by plague and abandoned by the South. It no longer has industry and is slowly rotting and dying. But it is a city with a memory and a bitter sense of pain. Elendhaven still has a touch of dark magic about it and now it is poised to reap its vengeance on the world.

Review

When you were a child, you were told stories, and if you were blessed, you were told scary stories that left the taste of ash and the scent of smoldering flame in your nostrils that hinted at the nightmares to come. The Monster of Elendhaven is just such a tale.

Gothic horror and just a touch of dark fantasy give this novel a wondrous sense of place and time. Brutal and violent, it also tells the story of love and grief. It mourns and cries out for justice. It finds this justice in the hands of dark magic and a gleeful monster who kills and kills.

A terrific tale of death and sweet revenge.

Don’t miss it!

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

 

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher is a tour de force of a thriller! It is one of those few and far in between books that will keep you up all night, so just strap in! This is a roller-coaster ride of a novel that can’t be missed!

Summary

“…He comes over on Thursday every week. That’s my day, I’m Thursday. It’s a hopeful day, lost in the middle of the more important days; not the beginning or the end, but a stop. An appetizer to the weekend. Sometimes I wonder about the other days and if they wonder about me. That’s how women are, right? Always wondering about each other-curiosity and spite curdling together in little emotional puddles. Little good that does; if you wonder too hard, you’ll get everything wrong…”

Thursday is married to a man she loves more than anything, Seth. But their marriage is a different kind of arrangement and Thursday has learned to cope with it. Seth has two other wives and Thursday doesn’t get to see her husband every day. She has to share the man she loves. She is the middle wife and she is sure that Seth loves her best, but she has never met the other two wives and she can’t help but be curious. She can’t help but wonder about the other two women she shares her husband with. One day, when cleaning his clothes, she finds a note, from a woman named Hannah. She is sure that Hannah is one of the other wives. Thursday has to know more. She has to find Hannah. She has to see who she is sharing her husband with.

Thursday pretends to be someone else and meets Hannah over lunch. What she sees surprises and frightens her. Hannah is beautiful and pregnant. Hannah is also hiding bruises on her arms. Thursday has never known Seth to be violent but the bruises are deep and purple and shaped like a hand. Thursday has to decide what to do. Does she reveal who she is? Her agreement with Seth was to never contact the other wives, but now that she has met Hannah, how can she turn away? And what of the first wife, Seth’s original wife.

Thursday begins to wonder, just how much does she even know her husband.

Review

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher is difficult to review because as a reader, you absolutely want others to love this book as much as you did so how much to share, becomes the question. I have not had a novel take as many twists and turns and still able to keep me involved as The Wives does in a very long time. It is absolutely one of the best thrillers and mystery books I have read in some time.

It is narrated throughout by the main character, Thursday and she will take you on a trip through reality and delusion and truth and lies unlike any you may have have been on. Thursday has shades of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and shades of the devoted, sheltered wife in every Lifetime movie you have wasted two hours of your life on. Even in the beginning, it is easy to tell that Thursday has an edge to her. But how sharp and who it will cut remains for the book to tell.

I’m really not trying to be obtuse here, but this is such a good read that I hate to give anything away. So I will just say, it is one hell of a good read and will remind you of what thrillers use to be.

Prepare for a long night, have a few drinks, some good snacks and enjoy the ride!