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Book Review: The Fifth Doll by Charlie N. Holmberg

The Fifth Doll by Charlie N. Holmberg
47North, 2017
ISBN-13:978-1477806104
Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, Audible, MP3 CD

 

The Fifth Doll is an excellent fantasy novel for pre-teens and young adults.  Charlie N. Holmberg has written several novels about young heroines who face the trials and tribulations of life and magic.  The current novel gives readers not only an interesting plot that keeps them guessing, but also a bit of cultural history about what life might have been like in an early 20th century Russian village.

Matrona, the daughter of a dairy farmer, is unusual in at least two ways.  She is an only child, and, at age 26, isn’t married yet.  Her family and the carpenter’s family have arranged a marriage for her.  She hopes she will come to love her aloof betrothed, but she is secretly attracted to the potter’s son, Jaska.  Matrona’s village is unusual, too.  No one has ever left, except Slava, the tradesman.  Slava leaves the village periodically with his horse and cart, into the surrounding forest, and returns with goods from the outside world.  No one else knows what that world is like.

The weather is almost perfect.  The villagers have never experienced a freezing winter and have no concept of what snow is, but Matrona has nightmares of gray skies, rows of box-like houses unlike the village’s colorful farmsteads, trodden dirt roads and the sound of tramping feet.

Matrona accidentally enters Slava’s house and discovers a room full of nesting, or matryoshka, dolls.  Each doll has the painted face of a villager.  Slava has a secret plan, and Matrona is an unwilling part of it.  Each doll has power over its original.  Slava forces Matrona to open her own doll one doll at a time every three days.  When she refuses, he threatens her family.

When Matrona opens each doll, there are disturbing consequences.  Her secret thoughts are revealed to the entire village, she has excruciating headaches, and hears an inner voice chastising her for her faults.  Her vision is alerted.  She sees faint lines in the sky and snow for the first time!  Matrona can’t escape through the forest.  Each path she tries leads her back to the village.

If she opens the fourth doll and reveals the fifth, Slava’s plan will be complete and Matrona will be his substitute.  What is his plan?  What is in the outside world?  Can Matrona and Jaska save themselves and the village? Holmberg keeps the reader guessing until the very end. Highly recommended. 

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

 

Posted on July 12, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Ruler of the Night by David Morrell

Ruler of the Night by David Morrell

Mulholland Books, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-0316307901

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, Audible

Ruler of the Night is the conclusion of a terrific trilogy from one of the masters of horror and thrillers, David Morrell. In this trilogy, the author of both Rambo and the classic dark novels, The Totem, Creepers, and Testament, takes readers on a ride back to the Victorian Age, and introduces the enigmatic Thomas DeQuincey, also known as the Opium Eater (a character based on the essayist who authored Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, who penned several stories and essays that directly influenced Edgar Allan Poe).

The first two books, Murder As Fine Art and Inspector of the Dead, brought Morrell new fans across the genres in which he writes and proved that the awards he has amassed from the Stokers and International Thriller Writers were well deserved. His England is near perfect in its bleakness, the fog as thick as blood: details of this stifling, yet fascinating world, surround the reader.

In Ruler of the Night, the Opium Eater and his daughter, Emily, discover the victim of a murder on a cross-country train. The victim was locked tight in his cabin, but the act carried out was bloody and wrenching. Upon their return home, they reconnect with the duo of Detective Ryan and his trainee, Becker, who have been enlisted to track down the killer on the streets of London.  Each character is fully fleshed out in this novel, just as they have been in the previous two entries. DeQuincey is utterly fascinating. Morrell makes it easy to see how he had a strong effect on the detective skills of Poe, along with the self-destructive behaviors that threaten to send him into the abyss.

I hopw that Morrell someday revisits this dark world, and that his next book contains as much mystery and horror. Recommended for any of his fans– along with anyone who loves a strong, dark thriller.

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Posted on July 11, 2017 by , Reply

Book Review: Yesternight by Cat Winters

Yesternight by Cat Winters

William Morrow Books, 2016

ISBN-13: 978-0062440860

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, Audible, Audio CD

 

In this age of instant gratification, the slow burn novel can be a tough sell for commercial audiences. Horror and suspense readers generally expect the action to move along, but fans of historical novels thankfully are used to this more measured pace, allowing the beauty of the setting to wash over them, building up and surrounding them.  Cat Winters strikes gold with Yesternight, a gem of a novel that straddles genres, and has emerged as one of 2016’s strongest efforts in all three genres.

 

Winters hit the scene running with the impressive Uninvited and Shadow of Blackbirds, writing for both adult and YA audiences. Yesternight leans more towards the adult crowd, fitting easily in the “new adult” genre, but could easily find favor with the high school crowd. It’s the perfect choice for a chilly day when you are trapped at home, looking for a good read.

 

Set in 1925 Oregon, Yesternight introduces us to Alice Lind, who has the unlikely role of being a female school psychologist, tasked with administering IQ tests to school children. At that time, a woman holding such a job was rare, and succeeding as a professional for the state which depended on providing services for needy students would have been definitely uncommon. Alice arrives and immediately finds a strange task– a seven year old girl who appears to be a mathematical genius, and may be the reincarnation of a woman who was murdered several years prior. Alice, caught between the opposing wishes of the girl’s separated parents, must find a way to solve the mystery of who little Janie O’Daire really is, opening up a dark secret within herself that may destroy who she is. Janie and Alice steal the show as they both struggle to find who they really are, both literally and figuratively, in a world that would rather keep women under the surface.

 

Gothic in nature, but simmering in its building of the characters, Yesternight is a complex tale with a serpentine plot. The many layers of the characters peel away, leaving the reader to delve into something much deeper, and more enjoyable, than expected. Recommended.

 

Contains: violence and gore.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms.


Posted on February 1, 2017 by , Reply
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