SKULL SESSION
By Daniel Hecht
Viking, $23.95
This debut novel opens with a jolt: Two kids are rummaging around an abandoned house when a superhuman force enters through the window, ripping the room, as well as one of the kids, to shreds. What follows is the tale of the old house and Vivien Hoffman, the strange old woman who owns it. After the home is wrecked, Hoffman hires her nephew, Paul Skoglund, an out-of-work contractor who suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, to restore the place. Accompanied by his feisty girlfriend, Lia, Skoglund travels to the small New York town of Lewisboro, where the house is located, to begin work. He soon comes into contact with police investigator Morgan Ford, who is working on the disappearances of several local kids. Eventually, the three begin to put together the real story of the house and its eccentric owner. While the setup of “Skull Session” is intriguing, first-time author Daniel Hecht takes a little too long to turn up the heat. Part of the problem is that he devotes a lot of time to explaining the Tourette’s syndrome of the main character. Some of this is necessary for the story’s development, but about midway through the book, I found myself wondering when the action was going to start. An interesting but flawed debut.
REAPER
By Ben Mezrich
HarperCollins, $22
What’s a month without at least one techno-thriller? This one begins promisingly enough: Nine overpriced lawyers on a conference call suddenly go into convulsions, turn white as chalk and die. A similar fate soon strikes a young girl watching a sitcom, a group of workers watching a basketball game, and other assorted citizens. Not coincidentally, the deaths take place on the eve of the information superhighway being wired into every TV set in the country by Telecon, a company run by the rich and sinister media tycoon Marcus Teal. Figuring out the how and why of these deaths are Samantha Craig, a government virologist, and Nick Barnes, a former surgeon whose career ended after his hand was crippled in an auto accident. These two hate each other at first sight, but you know that’s going to change. Unfortunately, their interaction seems so preordained that it never generates much passion. More engaging is the vicious Teal and his equally vicious assistant, Melora Parkridge. The book has all the elements of a James Bond yarn, sans fancy gadgets. This one is best read fast, lest the plot’s inconsistencies begin to get in the way of your pleasure.
AND THEN YOU DIE . . .
By Iris Johansen
Bantam, $22.95
Bess Grady is one of those photojournalists who find trouble wherever they point their cameras. When she takes an assignment in the small Mexican town of Tenajo, she anticipates a leisurely week of light work and rest. But what she and her sister, Emily, find is a village full of dead people. Before the two can grab the only survivor–a small child–and escape, they’re set upon by soldiers. Bess is taken captive, Emily disappears, and it’s only through the intercession of a handsome agent, Kaldak, that Bess is able to escape and ultimately take on the terrorists who have used Tenajo as a testing ground for their mad plan to disrupt the U.S. Unfortunately, a solid premise is wasted by the author’s insistence on combining it with a drippy romance that is not believable for a single second.
