Review by New York Times Review
MEDICAL MYSTERIES CAN be so messy, what with all those untidy body parts and slippery viscera. THE HOLLOW MEN (Pegasus Crime, $25.95), a first novel by the pseudonymous Rob McCarthy, delivers its gruesome details in the authentic voice of the medical student McCarthy happens to be. The stage is set at John Ruskin University Hospital in London, where Harry Kent, on duty at the Accident & Emergency department and on police call as a medical examiner, saves the life of Solomon Idris, a desperate teenager shot by trigger-happy cops during a bungled hostage standoff at a fast-food restaurant. Harry has his quirks. ("Every hospital had its speed addicts ... but Harry was careful.") And he's not proud of having betrayed his best friend. ("Long story short, I slept with his wife.") But he's heroic in a crisis and obsessively devoted to some of his sadder cases, like Zara, his name for an unidentified girl who's been comatose since 2011. When she arrived at the hospital, her hair had been shocking pink and as it grew out Harry made sure it was dyed the same color. Because he regards his nerve-racking job with a certain sense of awe and his professional efforts with a degree of modesty, Harry is much more complicated than the conventional fearless hero. Maybe that's because he secretly feels like one of T. S. Eliot's hollow men, forever searching for something to fill his empty soul. That would also explain why he feels responsible for people like Zara and Idris, who have no one else "to speak for them." Whatever his sins, Harry doesn't deserve to be made a scapegoat when someone tries to murder Idris - for what reason, no one knows - as he lies helpless in the hospital in a coma. And although the plot, centered on violent youth gangs in depressed areas, is fairly predictable, it's presented with jarring realism and zero sentimentality. McCarthy's piercing view of the fortified world of a big metropolitan hospital reflects the perspective of an insider who may sometimes wish he weren't so close to the action. COULD YOU LIVE without kittens? How about books? Could you live without books? In THE GIRL BEFORE (Ballantine, $27), J P Delaney offers a diabolical choice - a chance to live in the house of your dreams if you renounce almost all material attachments. Both Jane Cavendish and the property's previous tenant, Emma Matthews, have made considerable sacrifices to live at 1 Folgate Street, an extraordinary ultraminimalist mansion ("a compact cube of pale stone") that comes with some 200 restrictive rules of occupancy, set by the architect. The bans on children, pets and loud parties are only the beginning; tenants are forbidden to introduce so much as a throw pillow into this austere environment, which is electronically programmed to monitor itself. Unsurprisingly, that hyperattentiveness also distinguishes the architect, Edward Monkford, who romances both women, giving them identical jewels and introducing them to cosmopolitan delights like eating live seafood. There's a distinct creepiness to this claustrophobic story, but in time common sense triumphs; what initially felt deliciously sinister eventually seems schematic and just plain sadistic. IT'S THE "SEASON OF GRAY" in Randall Silvis's chilly suspense novel TWO DAYS GONE (Sourcebooks Landmark, paper, $15.99), a wintry time when "surliness prevails" in the northwestern wedge of Pennsylvania. There a wanted man hides in the woods, "numb with cold and hunger and disbelief." The fugitive is Tom Huston, a locally well-liked novelist who fled his house two days earlier, leaving his wife and three children slaughtered in their beds. Now Sgt. Ryan DeMarco has been charged with directing the hunt for a man he has come to know as a friend. Silvis tells his parallel stories - of Huston's mad wanderings in the forest and DeMarco's reluctant dragnet - with finely tuned sensitivity. The novelist uses brute willpower to close his mind to painful reality, while the policeman struggles to understand his quarry by reading Huston's notes for an unfinished novel. "How much of the voice was artifice and how much a reflection of the man?" DeMarco wonders. He asks the same question of himself, then supplies his own answer. "We are all made up," he says. "We are only real at night." JOANNE HARRIS DELIVERS mischief and murder to an English prep school in DIFFERENT CLASS (Touchstone, $26), a delightfully malicious view of privileged students with overly active imaginations. The novel's alarming events are mostly related by Roy Straitley, a crotchety Latin master with a droll sense of humor and a partiality for students who are "rebels and clowns." In deference to the new reformist headmaster at St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, Straitley will deign to invite visiting parents into his office, "much as folklore dictates we should invite a vampire before he can feed." He draws the line, though, at trivializing the classics department or (God forbid!) consolidating with Mulberry House, a school for girls. But, as we learn from the diary of someone with a disturbing taste for torturing animals, more dangerous forces lie elsewhere. Years earlier, Harry Clarke, a charismatic English teacher, had been unfairly accused of pederasty and charged with murder. But, thanks to Straitley, we now know where to look for the true spawn of Satan.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 1, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* There's a new girl in town. And if you think that Girl-titled thrillers have exhausted themselves, think again. The Girl Before is a masterfully crafted spellbinder that bringsa whole new dimension to the premise. There are actually two girls, Emma and Jane. Emma is relocating after a traumatic assault, and the only place that makes her feel safe is the amazing house at One Folgate Street, a minimalist-design masterpiece that comes at a price she can afford. The only catch is that the architect and landlord has an extensive list of rules that forbid any personalization. The enigmatic Edward Monkford's vision is of a space designed to transform the tenant rather than the space itself being transformed. And transformative, it is, indeed. Next comes Jane, with her own trauma. After moving in, she learns about Emma's untimely death and is told she strongly resembles Emma in age and appearance. Her curiosity gets the better of her, and she investigates, all the time following the same path to terror as the girl before. The tables turn, and turn again, and the ending is guaranteed to both astonish and satisfy the reader. JP Delaney is the pseudonym of a best-selling fiction writer. The book is being published in 35 countries, and a film version is in the hands of Ron Howard. A must.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In the pseudonymous Delaney's riveting psychological thriller, first Emma Matthews and then Jane Cavendish take up residence at One Folgate Street in London. The house, a masterpiece of minimalist architecture designed by the enigmatic Edward Monkford, is let only to tenants willing to abide by his stringent rules, which reduce life to its basics. This setup appeals to people looking for order, like Emma, who's trying to recover from a brutal attack that's hastening the end of her relationship with a man who adores her. Later, it is Jane, grief-stricken by the stillbirth of her daughter, who seeks asylum within One Folgate's walls. Both find themselves drawn to the house's creator and its tragic history. Were the deaths of Edward's family members accidental? Or were they murdered for not conforming to Edward's obsessive need for order? Writing with precision and grace, Delaney strips away the characters' secrets until the raw truth of each is revealed. That Emma and Jane act in often foolhardy ways hasn't prevented rights sales in more than 30 markets and movie rights to Universal with Ron Howard directing. Agent: Caradoc King, United Artists (U.K.). (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Jane was looking for a fresh start, which included a new place to live. She finds an interesting rental home at One Folgate Street, which is an extraordinary work of modern art and comes with extreme rules for occupancy. The home's mysterious creator and owner is as austere as his house and promises Jane that the space will transform her. Jane had no idea how her life would change, nor did she realize that she wasn't the first woman to occupy the space whose tenancy changed her forever. At some point in the past, Emma had lived there and experienced a similar "transformation" and terror. Delaney's narrative flows well, with the story alternating between Jane and Emma, pointing out the parallel nature of their lives and simultaneously building suspense. Performers Emilia Fox and Finty Williams do excellent work in their tandem storytelling. VERDICT Readers who enjoy the work of Paula Hawkins and Ruth Ware will want this title. ["Will consume psychological thriller enthusiasts and keep them thinking long after the final page": LJ Xpress Reviews 12/16/16 starred review of the Ballantine hc.]-Nicole A. Cooke, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Emma and Jane have a lot in common; they even look alike. Each has been through a traumatic experience and needs to move into a new London apartment, but neither has much money. They both see a gorgeous, glamorous (but minimalist) flat on Folgate Street that is, miraculously, within budget-assuming that the renter meets the owner/architect's strict requirements: no alterations, no rugs or carpets, no pictures, no potted plants, no throw pillows, and about 200 other stipulations. The flat should be experienced as is and, in fact, is meant to transform the occupant rather than the other way around. But there's something very compelling about the apartment. When Jane moves in, she learns that Emma was the previous resident-and that she died there. Told in chapters that alternate between Emma's and Jane's stories, the book ratchets up the tension page by page as Jane can't resist looking into Emma's life and death. By the end, readers will have no idea whom to believe or how far any of the characters will go to get what they want. VERDICT Teens who gobbled up Paula Hawkins's The Girl on the Train and Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl will be clamoring for this page-turning psychological thriller, which is already being made into a movie by Ron Howard.-Sarah Flowers, formerly at Santa Clara County Public Library, CA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A high-tech town house is leased by its control-freak architect to a series of women who look just like his dead wife."Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life." "A person close to you confesses in confidence that they ran someone over while drunk. As a result they have given up drinking for good. Would you feel obliged to report it to the police?" Agree or disagree: "I try to do things well even when others are not around to notice." These questions are part of the rental application for the house at 1 Folgate St., an ultramodern property that comes with "about two hundred stipulations": no books or magazines, no pets, no rugs, no cushions, no children, nothing on the floor at any time, and so on. Compliance is monitored by sensors and cameras, by a cleaning service, and by regular inspections. The entire environment is automated, with an application called "Housekeeper" controlling everything from shower pressure to internet access. Who in their right mind would want to live here? Emma and Jane, that's who. And if they were ever in their right minds, they certainly aren't after Edward Monkford, the architect and owner, gets hold of them. The two report their experiences in alternating chapters. Emma is "the girl before" of the title: she's moving in with a boyfriend named Simon after a burglary at their old apartment. Jane is solo, attempting to rebuild her life after a stillbirth. Little more can be said without destroying what little suspense Delaney has managed. About a third of the way in, it all seems so obvious. But waitthere's a twist! With hopelessly fake characters and far too many red herrings and reversals, 1 Folgate St. is a house with no load-bearing walls, collapsing under the weight of its own materials. Prediction: the Ron Howard movie, already in the works, will be much better than the book. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
