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摘要
摘要
A howling funnel of destruction screams across the prairie and slams into the sleepy town of Promise, Oklahoma. As the mammoth twister splinters homes, shreds crops, and tosses cars through the air, only three of the town's terrified residents know that an even more malevolent force has come to torment them-and they will not live to tell anyone.
评论 (4)
出版社周刊评论
Blanchard's gripping second thriller follows a smalltown police chief's pursuit of a serial killer who strikes only during tornadoes, but the "Debris Killer" is only one of the highlights of this fast-moving shocker, which also features the keen characterizations and fine atmospherics of the author's first thriller, Darkness Peering. Charlie Grover, Blanchard's sympathetic hero, lives in Promise, Okla., deep in "Tornado Alley." Recently widowed, Charlie is the physically and emotionally scarred survivor of a childhood fire that killed his mother and sister, and the father of a sweet 16-year-old daughter enchanted by a teenage storm-chaser ("the kind of troubled youth who gave troubled youths a bad name"). After Promise is hit by a severe tornado, Charlie discovers three bodies in a house with only minor damage. Their deaths are particularly gruesome-mother, father and daughter have all been impaled by flying debris; the father is "stuck like a pin cushion"-and Charlie quickly realizes that this is not the work of a storm. The bodies display defensive wounds and, worse, the killer's "signature": each has had a tooth extracted and replaced with another tooth. Charlie seeks the help of spunky scientist Willa Bellman, who introduces him to the art of storm-chasing ("heroin for the heartland") and slowly reawakens his heart. As tornado season comes on, more victims are discovered, and Charlie begins to suspect someone very close to him, before the murderer leads him on a final terrifying chase that will have readers gasping. Blanchard makes a bold move by linking her villain to tornadoes-each such powerful forces of destruction and chaos-and while it's a little far-fetched, it pays off in this dark depiction of environmental and human turmoil. (Nov. 11) Forecast: Twister may have been a dud, but Hollywood is betting on this Twister-Thomas Harris hybrid (screen rights have been bought by Warner Bros.-based John Wells Productions) and foreign rights have been sold in Germany, Holland, Italy and the U.K. Gale force sales are predicted. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
In a near-miss thriller, a twisted killer strikes only during twisters. To Police Chief Charlie Glover of Promise, Oklahoma--smack in the heart of Tornado Alley--the deaths were tragic, certainly, but hardly unpredictable. After all, it had been an F-3 ("severe" on the twister-monitoring Fujita Scale), and no one at all familiar with tornado patterns could doubt that big-time damage was in the cards. Yet the house belonging to the late Rob Pepper and his family was still standing, and it shouldn't have been--that was the first anomaly. But it was when Charlie got his first up-close look at the battered victims that he knew a clever murderer had used the storm's violence to camouflage his own, that there was an ugly triple homicide on his plate. On the hands and forearms of all three Charlie saw obvious defensive wounds. Then later, during autopsy, the medical examiner confronted him with a finding that could only be categorized as demented, and he faced the fact that he'd been landed with a case custom-made for headlines and headaches. All three corpses possessed . . . well, call it a posthumous tooth: that is, a tooth that had started out in the mouth of another. Subsequent storms, subsequent victims, subsequent errant teeth. Where did they come from? And what kind of mind would contemplate so weird a transplantation? Charlie, a widower, coping with a teenaged daughter's incipient rebellion, a budding romance on its way to becoming important, and some complicated office politics, now had to chase a killer with a thing about teeth and a savvy about twisters that would make him one hard sociopath to bring down. Storywriter and second-novelist Blanchard (Darkness Peering, 1999) offers an intriguing cast and some good action scenes, but try as she will, she just can't make a print-bound storm powerful enough to blow readers away. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Promise, Oklahoma, may not be much, but it is ground zero for storm chasers, an eccentric mix of meteorologists, amateur scientists, and plain-old crazies who stalk tornadoes like kids stalk ice-cream trucks. Police chief Charlie Grover is assessing the damage from a recent storm when he discovers the Pepper family. Husband, wife, and teenage daughter all killed--presumably storm victims, but Grover suspects a serial killer among the storm chasers. In the background is widower Grover's struggle with single parenthood and his new romance with a scientist fascinated by violent storms. The first two-thirds of the novel are excellent as Grover sifts through forensic evidence and desperately tries to profile a killer who hides among the chaos of tornados or may even have his killing rage released by the storms. The extended conclusion screams big-budget movie (rights have already been sold to a major studio) and runs counter to the moody thoughtfulness of the rest of the book. On balance, it's a well-crafted thriller, but it could have been better. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2003 Booklist
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
A nasty twister hits Promise, OK, but Chief of Police Charlie Grover isn't fooled: several apparent victims were actually murdered. Film rights have been sold. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.