Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hussain debuts with an unconventional thriller that powerfully probes questions of family, death, and memory. Dash Hassan wants to forget everything. A reporter for California's Monterey Coast News, he's abusing a cornucopia of prescription pills in an effort to permanently erase his trauma-filled past. He's also joined a wellness cult called the Liberty Subterraneans, which is led by Rocket, a pale, dreadlocked man who promises his followers that "God is a bomb and can detonate the past to liberate your future." With layoffs at the newspaper looming, a desperate Dash pitches a series of stories about being stalked by an assailant he decides--somewhat dubiously--is the Coast Killer, a serial murderer who last struck in the late 2000s. His article incites the killer to come out of retirement and launch a new murder spree. Meanwhile, Dash learns the dark truth behind the Liberty Subterraneans' mission and must confront his most traumatic memories before the drugs erase them--because doing so could hold the key to ending the Coast Killer's bloodshed. Hussain effectively channels the surreal paranoia of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly and the dark absurdity of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice to craft a wholly original serial killer tale. It's an auspicious first outing. (May)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
