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Women in Horror Month: Book Review: Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo

cover art for Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo

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Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo

Agora Books, 2021

ISBN: ISBN-10 : 1951709209

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition (pre-order: release date March 9, 2021)

 

 

The daughter of a Chicago policeman, Detective Lauren Medina has known the terrible trauma and tragedy of her city ever since the unsolved murder of her sister when they were both children. She is also a true believer in the power of the darkest fairytales to infiltrate ordinary lives. When someone begins tagging multiple spots in the city with the name “Pied Piper”, Lauren immediately realizes that the number of dead children is about to increase dramatically. Her evidence is a very old copy of Grimm’s fairytales she read as a child, a missing page from that book, and a magic rhyme that can call the Piper to get rid of any chosen victim.

 

Cynthia Pelayo is a master of her craft. In Children of Chicago, she creates a strong sense of place with brief descriptions of the city’s landmarks and its violent history. The familiarity of this location in the popular imagination heightens the supernatural effect of the fairytales on past and present sins that are destroying any hope of a better future through or for the community’s children. Within this cityscape, the mysterious Pied Piper, wearing a black suit and hat, appears frequently to a group of children who owe him for the horrible deeds they have requested him to perform. When he wants to, he transforms into a terrifying, bloody monster, hungry to collect his fees in human flesh. Pelayo moves expertly between human events and nightmarish fantasy suggesting that the two are not separate and that their intersection is a demonic one.

 

Part mystery, part fairytale, part psychological crime thriller, Children of Chicago will make you want to re-read fairytales as you wonder about their origins (based on true stories?) and try to figure out what Detective Medina really knows and how.  Best of all, by the climax of the book, like the Piper’s future victims, you’ll be looking into the shadows with a shiver hoping this scary tale is simply very good horror fiction.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Posted on February 13, 2021 by , Reply

A Cold Trail (Tracy Crosswhite #7) by Robert Dugoni

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A Cold Trail (Tracy Crosswhite #7) by Robert Dugoni

Thomas & Mercer, 2020

ISBN-10: 1542093228

ISBN-13: 9781542093224

Available: Paperback, ebook edition, audiobook

 

Cedar Grove, Washington, was a small town that never changed, where everyone knew everyone else’s business.  Homicide Detective Tracy Crosswhite had grown up there and thought she had put it behind her. When Tracy and her husband had a baby, though, she wanted her baby daughter to know where Tracy came from, so while their main home was being gutted and refurbished, she and her husband moved back to her childhood home.

After years of never changing, the small town was seeing a tremendous rebirth.  The family-owned stores she grew up with had changed hands and were undergoing renovation.  Prosperity was not without its perils, though.  One of the local business owners was suing the town for unfair business tactics, and her husband, Dan, was their lawyer.  Tracy reconnected with the local acting sheriff, Roy Calloway, while he temporarily came out of retirement to cover for the current Sheriff.  A recent house fire turned out to be arson, and the only fatality, Kimberly Armstrong, the current Sheriff’s wife, had been murdered.  Kimberly, a local reporter, was writing a book about a long-cold murder case from 1993 of a local woman, Heather Johansen.  Sheriff Calloway has a hunch that somehow, the two cases were connected, and he could use some outside help.  Tracy was it.

A Cold Trail is a procedural crime thriller that started slow but delivered with a powerful punch at the end.  It began like the small town it depicts.  Slow and unchanging.  Until it changed.  The author did a great job laying his framework.  At first, it felt like a sleepy little town that happened to have had a couple of murders there. Mix in greedy land developers that were being excessively secretive, and stir.  The plot worked well for me as it developed gradually, building suspense slowly much as a real crime investigation would. The story really came together in the last third.  The questions disappeared as the suspense built.  The ending was a fun twist.  The characters were believable as law enforcement types that were slow and methodical.  They worked well together, and it felt like I was watching an actual family work through the issues of two overlapping investigations.  The detailed descriptions of police procedures and legal proceedings lent an air of authenticity to the work.  This isn’t my kind of story, but it felt right.  The descriptions were good, giving me enough to picture the scenes.  The only thing that didn’t work for me was occasionally the author used an odd turn of phrase that just didn’t fit.  It’s interesting how word order makes or breaks a sentence.  In the end, this was a good book worth reading.  Recommended for adult readers.

 

Contains: Violence, Adult situations.

Reviewed by Aaron Fletcher

Posted on December 29, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: THE PVRITAN by Birgitte Margen

cover for THE PVRITAN by Birgitte Margen

THE PVRITAN by Birgitte Margen (  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Publisher: Independently published, 2020

ASIN : B08HQ6JV85

Available: Kindle edition, paperback

 

THE PVRITAN by Birgitte Margen is a crime novel about horrific serial murders in Boston. Martina Zucco is a deadly serious homicide detective. Her mother died in childbirth, and she was raised by a distant father, whom she followed into the police force. Her partner, Neil Cavanaugh, balances out the team with his irreverent, male humor. They investigate the murders of a M13 gang member, a teenage Satanic cultist, and an incel (“involuntary celibate”). Each victim is hanged, mutilated, and publicly displayed. The eyes, tongue, or hand are cut out. Skin from the abdomen is flayed away and glued to outstretched arms like wings.

What is the motive? The author gives readers clues. She begins each chapter with an excerpt from the Geneva Bible used by the Puritans, and inserts sacrifices from the Salem witch trials between the present-day murders. The only clues for Zucco and Cavanaugh, however are small pieces of the Geneva Bible stuffed into the victims.

The author describes the Boston area well, including the Boston Commons and neighborhoods burdened with gangs or crime (Mattapan aka “Murderpan” and Dorchester aka “Deathchester”). The plot moves along quickly, keeping the reader engaged. The author gives interesting background information about the M13 gang, satanic cults and the incel community. However, the novel ends too abruptly. As in many novels about serial killers, the detective and psychopathic killer struggle to the death. However, the author does not give enough details about the murderer’s family and childhood to satisfactorily explain his psychopathy.

Birgitte Margen also wrote The Red Death, about a deadly ancient plague, previously reviewed and recommended by Monster Librarian.

Contains: violence, extreme gore, body horror, and sexual content

 

 

 

Contains: violence, gore, sex

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

 

Posted on September 23, 2020 by , Reply
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