Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves Review

Author: Meg Long

Genre: YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Release Date: Jan. 11, 2022

Order Link: Amazon

 

Rating: 4 Frozen Hearts

*Special thanks to Wednesday Books for an arc of this book.

**Review published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

A captivating debut about survival, found family, and the bond between a girl and a wolf that delivers a fresh twist on classic survival stories and frontier myths.

Review:

Seventeen-year-old Sena is a seasoned loner, living on the outer edges of society in a small town on the frozen planet of Tundra.  She survives by picking the pockets of rich tourists and while she's good at it, she's not sharp enough to escape being caught by Kalba - a cruel capitalist with a stable of fighting wolves and several sled race teams.  Sena is highly sought after by race teams because she possesses the knowledge to survive the strenuous races - skills learned from her mothers (one a racer and one a scavver) who disappeared in the last annual sled race to the exo-carbon mines.  Ex-carbon, the most valuable resource on the planet, is coveted and controlled by capitalists whose methods of mining are destroying the ice planet.  Through a lot of misfortune and a string of bad decisions, Sena finds herself working for Kalba, trying to heal one of his injured fighting wolves within one month or else.  One catastrophe leads to another, and an injured Sena must flee barely escaping with her life and a killer she-wolf.  A team of scientists takes her and the she-wolf called Iska in and nurses them back to health in exchange for Sena teaching team members the survival skills needed to win the deadly sled race.  Sena refuses to run the race that killed her mothers, but in the end her choices are limited.  The story that ensues is one of the fight for survival against all odds.  One of a young girl and the killer wolf she rescued bonding and finding a way to persevere through a blood-thirsty journey where danger lurks around every bend.  It's a story of the search for truth and justice and the acceptance of family forged by necessity not by blood. 

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is an outstanding debut novel with amazing, skillful world building - from the frozen planet to the genetically altered wolves to the predators both animal and human to the different societies and races - it's a visual wonderland.  While I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi, this book captured and totally immersed me in a young girl's race for survival in a harsh world where she doesn't fit in.  I was completely captivated by Sena - her tenacity and determination to overcome all odds and discover exactly what happened to her mothers who were the best sledders on the planet meaning they didn't die from making a fatal mistake.  Sena knows in her gut there's more to what happened than that, and she's determined to find answers even if she dies trying.  

While this story starts out a bit slow, I found every single page of it fascinating.  Long does an impressive job of world building - one scene, one character, one larger than life danger at a time which proves to be highly beneficial as the story progresses and the pace picks up.  Without the meticulous setup, I would have soon lost my way in this complicated world of futuristic beings.  Instead, I was totally immersed in a story that bombarded all my senses as I held my breath several times sure that all was lost.  Author Meg Long proved to me that a futuristic sci-fi story can also be a great suspense thriller.  There's no way to follow Sena on her journey from beginning to end and not get deeply immersed in the mystery of what happened to her mothers - did they succumb to fate . . . or murder?  Or are they still alive?

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is an amazing debut novel that has me looking forward to more great things from Meg Long.  It's intense, captivating, detailed and ultra-visual, worthy of reading in one sitting.  I would love to see this book turned into a movie and can only imagine how the big screen would explode with color and creatures and characters and epic life and death battles.  Fans of fantasy and sci-fi will devour this book; however, I also highly recommend it to fans of suspense thrillers.  Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a delicious combo of genres that will rattle all your senses. 

Synopsis:

After angering a local gangster, seventeen-year-old Sena Korhosen must flee with her prize fighting wolf, Iska, in tow. A team of scientists offer to pay her way off her frozen planet on one condition: she gets them to the finish line of the planet’s infamous sled race. Though Sena always swore she’d never race after it claimed both her mothers’ lives, it’s now her only option.

But the tundra is a treacherous place, and as the race unfolds and their lives are threatened at every turn, Sena starts to question her own abilities. She must discover whether she's strong enough to survive the wild – whether she and Iska together are strong enough to get them all out alive.

A Thousand Steps Review

Author: T. Jefferson Parker

Genre: YA Historical Thriller

Publisher: Forge Books

Release Date: Jan. 11, 2022

Order Link: Amazon

Rating: 4 Strawberry Fields Forever Hearts

*Special thanks to Forge Books for an arc of this book.

**Review first published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

A Thousand Steps is a gripping thriller, an incisive coming-of-age story, and a vivid portrait of turbulent time and place by three-time Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker.

Review:

Laguna Beach, California, 1968 - Hippies, Psychedelic Music and Drugs, Peace Signs, Free-Love, Vietnam War, Politics, Anti-War Protesters vs. Police - the dawning of the perfect storm.  Author T. Jefferson Parker experienced life in the area and has now written A Thousand Steps, a book of fiction, incorporating the historical events of the era into a story about sixteen-year-old Matt Anthony's life and search for his missing sister during a time when the police considered most missing teenagers to be hippie runaways.  The author's expertise with narrative translates into an entertaining coming-of-age thriller that explodes on the pages with all the psychedelic color and sounds of the times while highlighting an often overlooked darker, ominous side where people like Timothy O'Leary preached free love and mind-altering drugs to thousands of young people tripping high on LSD, and con-men, predators and drug dealers helped themselves to the easy pickings.  The entire situation set up the perfect storm for young girls to be spirited away from their families only to disappear without a trace.

A Thousand Steps is a portrait of the times in 1968 - especially in California upon which thousands of young people from across the country converged believing it to be the land of dreams and opportunities.  Through his masterful descriptive prose, Parker has nailed the tone, mood, highs and lows, and good and bad of the era.  He's tapped into the darker side of the hippie movement through the voice of young Matt on his journey of teenage dawning - a sixteen-year-old male whose body is awakening to the wonders of the opposite sex, feeling the stirrings of first love with all the longings associated with his first girlfriend.  A young male toting a lot of responsibility for a teenage boy being challenged to provide for his dysfunctional family (absent dad, stoner mom, brother serving in 'Nam, sister Jazz).  When Jazz fails to come home after several nights, Matt knows in his gut something bad has happened, and it's on him to find her.  When yet another missing girl is found brutally murdered at the bottom of the Thousand Steps, Matt's world implodes with visions of his sister's battered body haunting his dreams.  After being brushed off by police saying she probably ran away, Matt begins his own search and investigation, often skirting around the edges of perverted gangs and groupies - using his artistic talents and sketch pad to move unnoticed among suspicious groups and possible suspects.  He intends to find his sister - dead or alive.

In A Thousand Steps, Matt is on a coming of age journey - navigating a thousand steps down his own road to adulthood.  Whether the author means for Matt's journey to mirror the famous Thousand Steps down to the beach or not, the parallel is notable.  Matt's thrown into the perfect storm and like readers is charged with discovering the fate of the missing Jazz (and potentially hundreds of other missing teenagers) while maneuvering through the mirrors and smoke and psychedelic explosions all around town.  The author does an excellent job weaving the many threads together while keeping the focus of the book on Matt and his experiences growing up in a time of great social and cultural conflict.  For me, the mystery is somewhat secondary, serving as a catalyst for the historical background and coming of age story although I did enjoy the suspense of figuring out what happened to Jazz.  Support characters are well developed and help flesh the story out which concludes with what I suspect many will consider a satisfactory ending.  

All in all, A Thousand Steps is a good fictional depiction of a time of extreme unrest in our country when many young people moved west with unrealistic visions of what the promise land was like.  I love that Parker used young Matt as a protagonist, showcasing his growth throughout the story which is impressive while also highlighting a darker side of the time period.  Before I go, I have to mention the beautiful cover that shimmers with all the psychedelic colors recalled by this story and era.  I highly recommend A Thousand Steps to anyone who grew up in the time period - what a walk down memory lane.  I also recommend it to fans who love historical fiction with a heavy side of mystery and suspense.

Synopsis:

Laguna Beach, California, 1968. The Age of Aquarius is in full swing. Timothy Leary is a rock star. LSD is God. Folks from all over are flocking to Laguna, seeking peace, love, and enlightenment. 
 
Matt Antony is just trying get by.

Matt is sixteen, broke, and never sure where his next meal is coming from. Mom's a stoner, his deadbeat dad is a no-show, his brother's fighting in Nam . . . and his big sister Jazz has just gone missing. The cops figure she's just another runaway hippie chick, enjoying a summer of love, but Matt doesn't believe it. Not after another missing girl turns up dead on the beach.

All Matt really wants to do is get his driver's license and ask out the girl he's been crushing on since fourth grade, yet it's up to him to find his sister. But in a town where the cops don't trust the hippies and the hippies don't trust the cops, uncovering what's really happened to Jazz is going to force him to grow up fast.

If it's not already too late.

A Flicker In The Dark Review

Author: Stacy Willingham

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Release Date: Jan. 11, 2022

Order Link: Amazon 

My Rating: 4 Flickering Hearts

Special thanks to Minotaur Books for an arc of this book.

From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page. In a debut novel that has already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone and sold to a dozen countries around the world, Stacy Willingham has created an unforgettable character in a spellbinding thriller that will appeal equally to fans of Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter. 

Review:

Flicker in the Dark is an intense psychological thriller that turns readers every which way but loose.  It's been awhile since I've been this impressed and entertained by a debut novel.  Willingham has penned a psychological thriller that pushes readers off the deep end, leaving them floundering alongside the characters just out of reach of safety and searching for answers without a clue who to trust and who to avoid like the plague.  An unreliable narrator, psychotic serial killer and a cast of well-manipulated red herrings make it nearly impossible to figure this one out before the reveal at the end.  Strap yourself in for a fast-paced, twisted ride!  

As children, Chloe and Cooper Davis suffered the disastrous fallout of their father's arrest and conviction for the brutal murders of several young local girls.  Being the closest to her father, young Chloe was devastated to be the one who found and turned over the evidence that resulted in her father's conviction.  Alone and guilt ridden, she spiraled into a dark depression where she learned young that solace could be found in alcohol and drugs.  Local gossip, accusations, doubt and guilt hounded Chloe throughout her teenage years, shaping her into a weary, fragile adult struggling with a ton of baggage. 

Twenty years later, thirty-two year old Chloe Davis emits the illusion of finally standing on solid ground, and she is to a point - with heavy daily doses of alcohol and prescription drugs.  Ironically, she's working as a psychologist to young troubled girls while moving ahead with wedding plans to her fiance Daniel in spite of her brother's strong objections.   Chloe feels like she's finally leaving the past behind . . . until a young girl goes missing and then another - both killed with the same MO as her father's victims.  Driven by guilt and the need to finally come to terms with the truth of her past, Chloe begins her own investigation.  Unfortunately, she's not mentally prepared for the revelations and dark secrets that surface when her past and present collide.  As the story and case progress, Chloe worries she's losing touch with reality but the one thing she's sure of is to suspect everyone, trust no one.

A Flicker In The Dark's lyrical prose is beautifully written and smooth as silk with what feels like an experienced author's hand.  Delivered through the voice of an extremely unreliable narrator who's possibly experiencing psychotic episodes of paranoia, the author manipulates characters and readers through twists and turns while dangling numerous well-developed red herrings in front of them.  Transitions from past to present flow seamlessly lulling readers into a false sense of security while filling in much needed back story.  Willingham's expert use of descriptive settings lends an ominous tone to the dark plot, driving the story at warp speed until the big reveal at the end.  I honestly don't remember the last time I was so impressed with a new author's debut novel and mad writing skills.  Willingham is surely an author to watch, and I look forward to reading her sophomore novel when it comes.  Fans of mystery, suspense and psychological thrillers are going to be challenged by the mystery in this book.  Highly impressive for a debut. 

Synopsis:

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, Chloe’s father had been arrested as a serial killer and promptly put in prison. Chloe and the rest of her family were left to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren't really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?