The Homecoming

May 13, 2013
A focused story makes for a smoother route to the small Southern town of Niceville in Stroud’s superior sequel to 2012’s convoluted Niceville. Nick Kavanaugh, a former Special Forces soldier now a tough county cop, and his lawyer wife, Kate, have become the guardians of 10-year-old Rainey Teague, a key player in the previous book. On a good day, Rainey is a handful, but he appears to be changing into the epitome of his evil ancestors. The answer to why this is so may lie in the gilt mirror hidden in the Kavanaughs’ closet. Meanwhile, the investigation of an armored-car heist during which four officers were murdered brings more violence to Niceville, including the accidental killing of a mobster and his grandson during a police shootout with an escaped prisoner. Elements such as an ancient ghost story, a nearby sinkhole that Native Americans consider a bad place, homicidal criminals, and the soul of one little boy meld into a rich, realistic supernatural thriller. Agent: Barney Karpfinger, Karpfinger Agency.

June 15, 2013
Thriller author Stroud returns to the eerie Southern town of Niceville, where plantation-era ghosts abound, gunplay is routine, and genres tend to morph and merge. For the sprawling second book in his trilogy, Stroud (Niceville, 2012) again strives to find the place where noir, thriller and paranormal fiction intersect. Detective Nick Kavanaugh is investigating a bank robbery that appears to have involved his brother-in-law Byron Dietz, a wife-beating horror who's implicated in some shady activity with Chinese businessmen. Meanwhile, Nick's wife, Kate, is caring for Deitz's shellshocked wife and kids, as well as 10-year-old Rainey Teague, who (as detailed in the first book) has a mystical connection to a family of slavery-era reprobates. Stroud can write knockout violent set pieces: A high-speed police chase gone terribly awry; Dietz's wild escape from custody thanks to a deer crashing into a transport bus; and a standoff in a Bass Pro Shop stocked with guns and outdoor gear. In these scenes, Stroud masters stark imagery, tough talk and street smarts, even if the cops other than Nick are relatively faceless. Where the book stumbles is in its ungainly effort to weave in plodding bits of horror and Southern history amid the crime story. Scenes involving Rainey Teague largely involve him and extended members of the Kavanaugh clan exploring an old plantation house, where Teague is possessed by "nothing," a nefarious demon trying to extract him from adult support. As a vision of evil, a boldfaced voice in a preteen's head isn't especially terrifying, and, tucked as this all is in a busy plot thick with characters and historical references, its impact is weakened further still. The most clearly drawn character, in fact, is Deitz, but he's a hard guy to root for. A third book may resolve the tangled plot, but this one is messy and overwritten.

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May 1, 2013
Attorney Kate Kavanaugh and her husband, Nick, a cop, decide to take in Rainey Teague. Rainey had been missing for over a year, until he was found in a crypt. His parents committed suicide shortly thereafter, and the troubled young man needs a home. All of this relates somehow to a magic mirror that harkens back to some nightmarish history. Kate's brother-in-law is terrorizing his family, and her sister, Beth, finally leaves him, taking their kids and moving in with Kate and Nick, too. Meanwhile, Beth's husband has been implicated in a bank robbery during which several police officers have been killed, but while being transported, he escapes. Then there's the group of Chinese spies who have died in a plane crash. All these complications are nothing, though, compared to the paranormal, creepy things going on in this small, southern town. All the characters are quirky and well developed, and the violence is integral to the story. The second book in the Niceville trilogy is a genre-bending, page-turning, suspenseful read that is impossible to put down or to forget.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)