The Only Child

April 10, 2017
Edgar-winner Pyper (The Damned) misfires in this supernatural thriller, which becomes less compelling and less scary the more explicit the threat to the lead gets. Doctor Lily Dominick, who works at New York’s Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, was traumatized at age six when her mother was torn to pieces by a creature, probably a bear, that broke into their home in Alaska. Lily knows that her memories are flawed, since she’s unable to explain why her mother’s corpse was not consumed or why the animal left no tracks. That mystery is reawakened with a vengeance when Lily is assigned a new patient who says he has no name—and who has been charged with assault after ripping off a man’s ears with his bare hands. The patient unsettles Lily by asserting that he committed the crime so that he could meet her and that he knows the truth about her mother. As his explanation for his provocative statements unfolds, readers will strain to suspend disbelief. The characters are less well formed than in Pyper’s better works. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Gernert Company.

May 15, 2017

Horror abounds for forensic psychiatrist Lily Dominick in Pyper's (The Demonologist) dark thriller about a monster who defies reality. Having witnessed her mother's murder when she was a child, Lily is used to dealing with violent crime, but when she acquires a mysterious patient, she begins to question what exactly she saw all those years ago. Lily thought she made up the monster she saw as a child, but this unnamed patient may have the clues she seeks. He claims to be more than 200 years old and the inspiration for stories about Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Lily's inner voice tells her that this man is a delusional criminal, but her instincts--and her desire to know the truth about her mother's death--compel her to follow him across the world after he escapes from the psychiatric facility. She is unaware that others are following him, too, and she may be in more danger from them than the monster. VERDICT Pyper's writing is gripping, and readers will undoubtedly make comparisons to Stephen King. [See Prepub Alert, 12/12/16.]--Natalie Browning, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Coll. Lib., Richmond, VA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017

Here's an intriguing literary conceit: a single monster inspired the masterpieces Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Dracula, and, still alive today, he's being interviewed by forensic psychiatrist Lily Dominick. From the No. 1 internationally best-selling author of The Demonologist.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2017
Savvy readers will be puzzled by forensic psychiatrist Lily Dominick's behavior at the start of this bloody thriller. She's taken in by the seductive manner of a vicious subject? It happens. But shrinks are trained to quash that, aren't they? Or seek counsel from another shrink. Why doesn't she? A few pages later, she comes across a written confession by the killer. Why doesn't she rush it to the police? Instead, she begins her own investigation into this man, ostensibly because he claims to know the real story of her mother's murder in a snowbound cabin decades ago. The manhe calls himself Michaelhas so ensorcelled her that she listens while he claims to be a 200-year-old laboratory creation and the original for Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and Mr. Hyde. It's clear now that Michael also has plans for Lily, and the working out of those plans is the occasion for some fine, tense scenes. As the narrative comes to its violent conclusion, we learn that the ambiguities of the opening are foreshadowings, and there is more than one monster among us.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)