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Book Review: Neptune’s Reckoning by Robert J. Stava

Cover art for Neptune's Reckoning by Robert J. Stava

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Neptune’s Reckoning: A Montauk Horror Story, by Robert J. Stava

Severed Press, 2020

ISBN: 9781922323644

Available: paperback, Kindle

 

Neptune’s Reckoning is an undersea thriller to be reckoned with.  It’s a sleek, well-designed craft that cuts through the competition, hitting all the right peaks.  File this book in the category of “Books that should have been nominated for a Stoker Award”.  Peter Benchley will always be the master of ocean-themed horror, but author Stava comes pretty close to matching him with this book.

 

Reclusive historian William Vanek spends his days at home on Long Island, researching shipwrecks and naval history of little significance.  An old friend of his from Navy intelligence recruits Vanek, along with extreme photographer Danielle “Dan” Cheung and shipwreck specialist Arnaud Navarre, to look into the recent discovery of a missing World War II destroyer, the USS Exeter.  The story rolls out at a pace as smooth as glass, as the three of them are drawn into a web of mysterious killings at sea and government cover-ups.  The mystery deepens, as it becomes clear the destroyer was involved in some dangerous, high level research before it sank.  It’s up to the three of them to discover the truth about the Exeter, and put a stop to who (or what) is responsible for killing boaters in the Montauk area.

 

Neptune’s Reckoning is as good as it gets for a horror/thriller novel.  The pacing is perfect; it hits the bull’s-eye between breakneck speed and slow burn.  There’s a secondary story thread involving toxic waste dumping near the Exeter that adds another factor to the story, and is just as interesting as the primary story.  All the secondary characters are critical to keeping the story flowing: they are drawn perfectly and enter and exit the narrative at just the right time.  The eco-warriors and small-time criminals make excellent foils to the main story, and are as intriguing as the main characters.  The book also does a nice job splitting the story settings between land and sea.  Each section gets enough time, preventing the book from being one-dimensional.

 

It’s worth noting that if you haven’t seen Stranger Things, doing a bit of spot research on Camp Hero, Montauk, NY, and the conspiracy theories around them helps to lend a greater understanding of the book’s background.  The stories behind Montauk are not critical to following the book, but it does help.  There’s also a nice touch of sci-fi involving the entity inhabiting the waters around Montauk.  It isn’t just a shark or oversized squid tearing its victims to shreds, it is much more mysterious-and deadly.  The reader won’t get a total explanation for everything that happens at the end of the book, and that may be a bit frustrating for readers who prefer every plot thread to be explained in full.   Everyone else will love the smooth sailing that is Neptune’s Reckoning. 

 

This is one you can’t miss, and it should find a wide audience for horror and adventure readers alike.  It’s also tailor-made for the silver screen; let’s see if Hollywood picks it up.  Highly recommended.

 

Contains: violence, limited gore, profanity

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on February 6, 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: A Solitude of Wolverines: A Novel of Suspense (Alex Carter, #1) by Alice Henderson

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A Solitude Of Wolverines: A Novel of Suspense (Alex Carter, #1) by Alice Henderson

William Morrow, 2020

ISBN-13 : 978-0062982063

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook.

 

A new thriller series has arrived to bring a bit of light to the hell year that was 2020. Alice Henderson invites readers to join her on a new quest in the wilderness with more than a bit of  darkness surrounding her story. Those familiar with the author will recall the stunning horror novel Voracious, the thrilling Skyfire trilogy, and her Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels. One element that courses through her fiction is the dedication to wildlife and the environment.

A Solitude of Wolverines is the first entry in a new series that promises plenty and delivers both thrills and scares while imbuing a strong sense of the gorgeous setting with nary a wasted character. Biologist Alex Carter accepts a position in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana after she survives a strange attack in Boston: a deranged gunman opens fire at a ceremony, only to be killed by an unknown second shooter. She leaves behind a life not for her, including a high-maintenance lawyer boyfriend, and lands in an old ski resort where she’s tasked with tracking the elusive wolverines in the area.

Alex’s arrival does not sit well with the locals. A truck runs her off the road right away, while the sheriff and landowners want the wilderness area for their own plans. She finds a man in the Montana wilderness, injured and near death, stating “they can’t find me.” Scene by scene, Henderson amps up the tension with the stakes looming larger, and the sinister conspiracy unfolding at every turn, leaving Alex not knowing who to trust and worrying about who’s trying to kill her. The climax is a stunner, and announces Alex Carter as a major new character in the thriller universe. The open-ended thread of a possible serial killer with a connection to Alex threatens to grow into a stronger story in subsequent books.

Henderson’s deft hand weaves a strong narrative through the maze of characters brilliantly drawn. Nobody is who they seem to be, which drives Alex’s survival instincts, learned from her Air Force pilot mom, into high gear. Carter is a great lead character who appears destined to have a long, storied future. She is a woman who’s not afraid to show her flaws, yet has the heart and spine to stand with the toughest men in the genre. Readers might draw some parallels with Nevada Barr, C.J. Box, and William Kent Krueger, but Henderson has a style all her own. Her insight and expertise into the setting she knows so well, the stark, beautiful Montana wilderness, becomes a central character yet never overshadows the story.

A highly recommended first entry in a new thriller series.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on December 19, 2020 by , Reply
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