An engaging and delightful creature-feature gem.
A colossal multilegged insect terrorizes the Lone Star State in Bills’ horror novella.
When West Texas lawmen find they can’t explain a human-arm-sized “stubby tentacle” clutched in a dead man’s hand, they know it’s time to bring in an expert. It certainly looks familiar to assistant university professor Annette Carden, who has a degree in entomology and a specialty in centipedes and millipedes. The strange body part likely came from a Devil Head centipede, except one this length would mean the Devil Head is around 40 feet long. As these centipedes are fast, aggressive, and venomous, other Texans are likely in trouble—and soon, another few mutilated bodies confirm the danger. Sheriff Axil Rafferty orders those under his command to gather reliable people and arm them to the teeth, so they can “try to corner this thing and kill it.” They’re not sure how many bullets it will take, or even if such firepower will be effective, but Rafferty and the others will do whatever it takes to protect West Texas. Bills’ compact tale hits the ground running with a prompt introduction to the creature. Much of the narrative, however, consists of prolonged but surprisingly absorbing discussions of the Devil Head centipede. Carden, for example, provides expertly derived specs on the creepy-crawlies, and someone else suggests a local nuclear waste dump as the potential reason for this insect’s staggering dimensions. Accordingly, the novella isn’t so much scary as it is compelling. There are humorous bits, as well, as when Rafferty refers to the scientific name Chilopod as “chilidog.” The book’s only downside is that it’s all over too soon, as the appealing cast easily could have carried a longer work. The denouement, nonetheless, is a knockout, and Bills includes a “b-side” in the short, graphic, and profane bonus story, “The Opening Day.” In it, a horrifying near-future America has legalized killing protesters, and a young, bigoted right-wing extremist’s murderous agenda takes an unexpected turn.
An engaging and delightful creature-feature gem.Pub Date: May 10, 2023
ISBN: 9798218199333
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Starkweather Imprints
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You’ll be glad you did.
A successful Vermont podcaster who’s elicited confessions from dozens of criminals finds herself on the other side of the table, in the hottest of hot seats, over her own troubled past.
Poe Webb was only 13 when she saw her mother, Margaret McMillian, get stabbed to death by the man she’d picked up for a quickie. Poe had vowed revenge, but how could a kid find and avenge herself on a stranger who’d vanished as quickly as he appeared? In the long years since then, Poe’s made a name for herself as a top true-crime podcaster who routinely invites her guests to tell her audience exactly what they did. Now, she’s being pressed, and pressed hard, by Ian Hindley, whose fake name echoes those of England’s Moors Murderers, to join him in a livestream her fans will find riveting because, as Hindley tells her, he’s actually Leopold Hutchins, the pickup who stabbed her mother 14 times when she failed to use her safe word. Skeptical? Hindley knows endless details about the killing that were never released by the police. If Poe won’t do the broadcast, Hindley threatens to harm everyone she loves: her father; her producer and lover, Kip Nguyen; and her black Lab, Bailey. And there’s one more complication that makes the pressure on Poe even more unbearable. Seven years ago, against all odds, she succeeded in tracking Leopold Hutchins from Burlington to New York and killing him herself. In fact, it’s that murder that Hindley most wants her to talk about. Which bully is more fearsome, the man who’s threatening her or the man she killed?
Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You’ll be glad you did.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781464226229
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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