14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nifty Story, Slight Problems, June 21, 2003
This review is from: Eternity (Paperback)
Eternity, California is definitely one of those places you would rather visit then live. Its isolation is the first problematic thing about it. High up in the mountains along treacherous roads, Eternity promises complete solitude for those who wish to hide away from the real world. At the same time, the remote location of the town virtually insures that serious dangers will also be kept from prying eyes. When Zach Tully, a Los Angeles police detective, decides to accept a job as sheriff of this inaccessible little niche in the mountains, he learns that isolation is not always the safest escape from the big city. Tully leaves LA after his wife and young son die at the hands of the Backdoor Man, a grotesque serial killer who the cop came within minutes of catching. Now Tully wants some peace and quiet, a place where he can go to do some fishing and where the extent of his policing duties are the occasional writing of a parking ticket or busting up a beer bash.
Imagine Tully's surprise when he discovers that Eternity has a sky-high homicide rate. Moreover, the last two men to hold the position of sheriff died horribly at the hands of a serial killer. To add insult to injury, the new sheriff finds himself at the mercy of the city council, a group of oddball characters with a lot of secrets to hide and short patience for an inquisitive cop. Then there is the assortment of escaped patients from the nearby asylum, strange lights in the mountains, a Stonehenge-like circle that emits weird energies, a local legend that Lemurians are hiding in the mountains, and more than one resident of the town resembles people who disappeared throughout time, like Ambrose Bierce, Amelia Earhart, and Jim Morrison. Rumor has it that the spate of serial killings in the area closely resembles those of the infamous Jack the Ripper. Sheriff Tully has his hands full right from the start, although he does strike up an acquaintance with beautiful Kate McPherson and her young son Josh. Overall, his stay in Eternity promises to be anything but mundane.
While "Eternity" contains elements of a classic suspense tale, there is a significant amount of horror here as well. I quit counting the number of deaths after awhile, as the townspeople literally drop like flies every few pages or so. The murders are gruesome, involving much more than simple shootings or stabbings. The book opens with the unpleasant description of Tully's predecessor moving into the afterlife, setting the tone right from the start that this story is not going to be without its moments of stomach churning scenes.
The characters are well done for books in this genre. Sheriff Tully receives the most attention since he is the main character. The author, Tamara Thorne, takes the reader into Tully's head quite often, especially when describing his dreams about the death of his family at the hands of the Backdoor Man and how he is bound and determined to not let this happen to Kate and Josh in Eternity. Tully is a tortured soul taking his first tentative steps back to normality, and the killings in Eternity stand squarely in his way. Other characters are not as well drawn, but should have been. For example, I would have liked to see more done with Carl Leland, Kate's domineering and manipulative ex-husband. This guy had great potential to cause a heap of trouble for our main characters, but Thorne allows him to barely make a ripple in the larger story.
Books that deal with people isolated from society always suffer several plot problems unless the author adequately explains them away. Thorne fails to do such here. The biggest question that loomed large in my mind as I read the story and saw the death toll mount was: Why has no one brought in authorities from the outside? Here is a serious spate of serial killings, everybody knows they are serial killings, everybody is afraid of becoming a victim of the killer, yet no one calls in the state police or the FBI. The excuse that the town fathers do not want to damage the tourism industry just does not explain away this problem. But once you recognize this plot hole and allow yourself to get past it, the story holds the reader's interest while providing some pretty cool explanations for missing persons, Stonehenge, and unexplained serial killings throughout the last 110 years or so. I thought Thorne really knew her stuff about these incidents and wove them well into the story. There are a few other problems, namely not enough detail about the Lemurians and the Stonehenge circle in the mountains, but the story works well without them.
Tamara Thorne's "Eternity" is an entertaining read. Despite a few unexplained threads, the story really works with its generous helpings of gore and suspense. I always enjoy a good yarn about Jack the Ripper, and this story makes him a major character. I also liked the way Tully discovers the identity of the killer. I would certainly read another Tamara Thorne book based solely on my experience with "Eternity."
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wecome to Eternity, March 28, 2001
This review is from: Eternity (Paperback)
I ordered a copy of Tamara Thorne's "Eternity" more or less as an afterthought. Good horror is hard to find and it was time to try someone new. Little did I know that I had just signed up on a crazy roller coaster ride through the mountains of North California chasing the trail of one of the most prolific serial killers of modern times.
Zach Tully has recently been recruited to the post of sheriff in the obscure town of Eternity. He is leaving behind a successful career as a homicide detective and the horrifying images of his wife and child who were slaughtered by the `Backdoor Man." He arrives hoping to find peace and forgetfulness but finds himself buried neck deep in strangeness.
Eternity has several different flavors of residents. There are ordinary town folk, tourists, refugees from the local mental home, and `lifers', who seem to have been around forever. In addition, lights and UFO's appear around Icehouse Mountain, the local peak, which also sports a stone circle around which considerable weirdness seems to happen.
Eternity can also boast of the highest murder rate north of San Francisco. If records can be believed, there have been streaks of serial killings for almost 150 years. Tully hardly has time to get out of his car before his is confronted with an almost daily cycle of gruesome killings. He also meets Kate McPherson and her son Josh, who are being menaced by this killer and a possessive ex-husband.
Thus the scene is set for a tale of escalating surprises. Thorne proves that even the oldest serial killer theme can be given interesting twists, including a killer who delights in adding whole levels of meaning to `not a leg to stand on,' and `in one ear and out the other.' As an author she has a pleasant readable style, which often reveals a wry sense of humor. Her characters, whether normal, eccentric or horrible are believable and entertaining. I am looking forward to Thorne's other books.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe More Fantasy than Horror..., April 19, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Eternity (Paperback)
I'm not going to regurgitate what the story was, who the characters were, etc. I do agree with the reviewer that said the number of businesses in a small town -- even a "resort" town, was hard to believe. But the entire story was hard to believe!
Good horror is believable. That's why it scares people -- because this COULD happen to YOU! Unfortunately, "Eternity" tried too hard to incorporate too much and became muddled rather than believable.
First off, there is the unbelievable number of murders. When you count up them up, you'll notice that the killer has wiped out a nice percentage of the population! And the "town council" won't address the problem. Then there is the issue of "lifers" -- people who have apparently come through "the vortex" and stop aging. And there is the Brotherhood -- whose function is mysterious and remains so since it stays on the sidelines and is never explained. And the ending/confrontation is a total disappointment. As one reviewer said, a real rush job. After a zillion pages of build-up, the reader must feel like "that was IT??"
The writing is well done and the characters are fun but the entire story is just too much of a mish-mash for true horror.
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