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Book Review: The Institute by Stephen King

The Institute, by Stephen King

Scribner, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-9821-1056-7

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

The Institute is entry number fiftysomething in the catalogue of He Who Cannot Stop Writing, better known as Stephen King.  As he has been wont to do since 2010’s Full Dark, No Stars, King continues to mine the vein of psychological horror, finding true evil in the inhuman actions that normal, rational human beings foist on each other.  King doesn’t need vampires, hotels with a mind of their own or undead children with scalpels to do so: he finds plenty of ugliness with the insanity of everyday people.  The Institute isn’t on the level of his unholy trinity of The Shining, The Stand,  and ‘Salem’s Lot, but it’s still a very good read, and one that would be considered outstanding for any other author.  It’s clear that over 40 years into his career, King still has an iron grip on his claim to being America’s best writer, and he isn’t likely to relinquish the throne anytime soon.

The first 40 pages consist of following Tim Jamieson, an ex-cop drifting through life, who  winds up in the tiny hick town of Dupray, South Carolina and takes a King-created job as a night knocker, someone who walks the town from dusk till dawn, checking business doors and keeping an eye out for trouble.  The story stays here just long enough to get the scenario set and characters developed, then  jumps to Minnesota, with a completely different thread and set of characters.  It’s a testament to King’s skill that he’s able to do this.  He creates interest in an ordinary situation and location, gets it all developed, and then shifts gears to something completely unrelated, but no less interesting.  Phase 2 focuses on Luke Ellis, a child genius. who at the age of 12 is taking the entrance exams to MIT, the country’s most famous genius farm.  Luke is kidnapped and his parents killed one night, and he wakes up in a lockdown hospital/research unit in northern Maine known as The Institute.  Luke and the other children are subjected to various tests, beatings and tortures, as their captors seek to exploit extra-sensory abilities that most of the kids didn’t even know they had.  Of course, their handlers have their own nefarious reasons for their actions.  Eventually, the Maine and South Carolina threads tie together, and the story barrels through a thrilling conclusion.

As often happens with King, this one is yet ANOTHER page turner that is hard to put down.  A great deal of King’s skill lies in making any character at all seem interesting and worth the reader getting emotionally attached to.  Even the minor characters, like security guards and homeless people are completely developed, and you want to know what happens to them, no matter how small their role in the story.  The dialogue is perfect, whether the characters are southerners or New Englanders.  King clearly does his research, and gets all the little nuances and mannerisms perfect when the characters are conversing or taking actions.  The other area where he shines, as always, is in creating settings that make perfect sense, down to the last detail.  Everything fits, whether it’s detailing an escape plan or describing the methods used to physically and mentally abuse children.  He never leaves room for unbelievability, it all seems completely plausible.  King’s unequaled skill at all of the above is the main reason he’s been on top of the mountain for so long.  Of course, none of this matters unless the story is exciting, and it is.  It’s a fast burn of a story, and maintains a quick clip through its 500 plus pages.  There are no sections that drag, it all flies fast and keeps you turning pages.

The Institute is yet another winner from the author with the most consistent track record of excellence in American literary history.  If you’re a King fan, you’ll like it, and non-fans would also be likely to enjoy this one.

Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

 

Posted on January 18, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Nine Elms (Kate Marshall Book 1) by Robert Bryndza

Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza

Thomas & Mercer, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-542005-68-5

Availability: Hardcover,  paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

 

When it comes to reading choices, there are a LOT of crime thrillers featuring a female detective as the lead available, and many of them get turned into a series of books.  For a book to stand out from the competition, the story and writing has to be very good.  Robert Bryndza’s new book Nine Elms meets both of the criteria.  Excitement, good story development, solid characters, unexpected plot twists… all the elements are there.  It won’t be any surprise to see heroine Kate Marshall return for another go-around in a second book, and continue what looks to be a the start of yet another enjoyable series.

The book starts fifteen years prior, with a 26 page lead-in to the main story.  Kate is a detective, on the trail of a killer known as the Nine Elms Cannibal (although he doesn’t eat his victims, he simply takes a few bites out of each of them).  The author takes a nice swing at the media, when it’s revealed that despite the lack of actual cannibalism, the media hung the nickname on the killer in their never-ending quest for sensationalism.    Kate catches the killer and becomes a hero, but she quickly becomes the goat due to her relationship with the killer, and she resigns from the police force.

Jump ahead 15 years: Kate is a professor of criminology at a local college.  She receives a letter out of the blue from a family who found new evidence in the case of their daughter’s murder, which happened 20 years ago.  They want to hire her to look into it, since the police aren’t interested.  Kate and her academic assistant, Tristan, reluctantly agree.  Another string of grisly murders starts at the same time, and Kate sees similarities between the Nine Elms Cannibal killings, the new ones, and the cold case of the daughter.  Kate and Tristan are slowly but surely drawn into the fray.  It’s a race to track down the new killer, and find out how all three cases tie together.

Author Bryndza writes with a sure hand, like the seasoned literary veteran of detective writing he is.  No wasted words, no overdevelopment, and no slow parts: every chapter guns along at a fast clip and rolls right into the next chapter, guaranteed to keep you turning pages.  Of course, half the fun of these books is trying to guess the killer’s identity, and Bryndza does a good job keeping it hidden until close to the end.  It’s usually done one of two ways in crime thrillers: the killer was introduced as someone living behind a mask in the beginning, or he doesn’t make an actual appearance until partway through.  The author chooses the correct one here for maximum effect.  It helps that the story has three threads to work off of, as the original Nine Elms killer still does play a significant role throughout the book, and an important part in the climax.  For readers that always need the “why?” question answered as to the killer’s motives, Bryndza does provide enough explanation for both killers.  It’s not overly done, just enough to make sense and keep the story rolling.   His characters are also nicely done in shades of gray: they are not just one-dimensional, especially Kate.  She’s not perfect, and has her weaknesses like everyone else.

As Dabney Coleman famously said to Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond, “what’s the bottom line here…?” The bottom line for Nine Elms is, if you like crime thrillers, you don’t want to miss this one.  It isn’t quite up to the gold standard that Graham Masterton set for detective novels with his Katie Maguire series, but it’s a strong contender for the silver.  Recommended.

 

Contains: violence, profanity, mild gore

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on January 7, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleishmann

How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleishmann

Berkeley, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1984805171

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

This novel has been billed as the cross between The Dry and Silence of the Lambs.  That’s a boast if I ever read  one. Is it accurate? Read on to find out. If nothing else, it’s a fine thriller that has a great comparison line.

Set in 1941 in the wilds of Alaska, the story begins with Elisabeth Pfautz living in a small town with her husband who works as a teacher, and her daughter. Everything seems normal– boring, even– but they’re content with life.

The postal plane arrives on a regular schedule, their only connection the outside world. One day, a different pilot and carrier, Alfred Seibel, lands and asks a small favor: to be put up in the family home as the agreement states as part of an old town rule. Alfred departs the plane and inserts himself into Elizabeth’s life. With Alfred being German, the situation could get ugly, easily, for both sides.

Once he’s settled into the house, Elizabeth is plagued by dreams of her twin sister, Jacqueline, who disappeared twenty years prior, never to be found.

Alfred quickly inserts himself into her family, and the town. Yet one day, he murders a local, a close friend of Elizabeth’s. Once in prison, Alfred tells her he has information about Jacqueline and how he might be able to solve the mystery that has plagued Elizabeth for most of her life. With a poor marriage and no life in the desolate land, she accepts his request to visit him in prison.

He offers her this: for each gift she gives him, he’ll take her one step closer to her sister.

She accepts, and finds that although Alfred begins innocently enough, he quickly steps up his game. As Elizabeth discovers the cost of each gift she gives, he has her hooked with the puzzle he hands her.

Alfred turns out to be a quality villain who is much more than he seems to be, full of flaws that Lecter never revealed. Elizabeth is no Clarice. but she’s not meant to be. Her surroundings, family, and town, all serve as antagonists in her quest to find her sister, or at least the final piece of the puzzle. This literary fiction novel masquerading as a thriller/horror hybrid lulls the reader into a stark place that ultimately delivers in all three genres.

A challenging, yet highly rewarding, read for this new year.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

 

Posted on December 31, 2019 by , Reply
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