![]() ![]() ![]() With enough action (Joe survives a fife ordeal) and last-second twists to grab those uninterested in the topnotch atmosphere, Hillman's overdue return (five years since Dance Hall of the Dead) should draw murmurs of contentment from all sides.Īnother sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.Ī week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. That comes instead from his unhokey Indian population, convincingly mystical (sand paintings and ritual cures play key roles here) but alive to modern ways and talk from the contrast between highways and mountains, asphalt and rock and from the quiet, wise presence of Leaphorn himself, unselfconsciously drawing on the best of two clashing cultures. The plots out at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park ("this whole Short Mountain country ain't worth hitting a man with a stick for") have never been Hillerman's magic. Hillerman has allowed his detective, Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Police, to get tangled up with terrorists: a Boy Scout troop is held hostage by a fringe Indian-rights gang whose leader is a madman out for revenge and personal gain. Like so many other mystery men these days, the splendid Mr. ![]()
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![]() ![]() She's harboring a secret that could put her in league with the Bane. Jade also has a huge secret.and while it involves the vengeful murder of Luc, it isn't what you think. He has lived a life of carefree bachelorhood committing to no one his lifestyle the result of the grief he's held pent up for over a decade. We discover just exactly what happened and why she lost her life, but the twist the author included is brilliant. ![]() Luc has a huge secret.a secret that has continued to scar him emotionally for many years he caused the death of woman he loved. "Kiss of the Betrayer" focuses on Luc and Jade but we also have a lot of involvement from Ravyn, Rhys, Vile, and Icarus, among others. There is a lot of back story concerning Luc, Jade, Ravyn, and Rhys, as well as Vile and Icarus, that is very important to know before heading down this leg of the journey. ![]() Being that "Kiss of the Betrayer" is Book #2 in this series, I highly recommend you read Book #1, "Shield of Fire" first. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() His formative fantasies were of a darker version of pulp icon Conan the Barbarian, who haunts the book like some terrible spirit animal. It would have been pat to make the game solely the result of the trauma, but Darnielle complicates it by sowing bitter seeds in Sean’s childhood. We learn early on that one was badly hurt, the other killed, in some way related to the game.Īfter his accident, Sean envisions Trace Italian in a hallucinatory scene rendered like Carlos Castaneda writing the Book of Revelation. Until nearly the end, he withholds the cause of Sean’s injury and the significance of two players named Lance and Carrie. Sean’s recollection tacks backward in time, through hospitals and courtrooms and sad domestic scenes, toward the ground zero of his accident.ĭarnielle mentioned Borgesand Robbe-Grillet in his INDY interview, and he shares their fondness for evocative absence. Otherwise, the suspense derives not from what will happen but what already has. The best of INDY Week’s fiercely independent journalism about the Triangle delivered straight to your inbox. ![]() |