Customer Reviews

Eternity

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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."

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.

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.

First off, I thought this book was spectacular. There were some flaws, but that's to be expected, (No one writes a perfect book). I thought it was a healthy and masterful combination of mystery, suspense, horror, and a sprinkling of fantasy.
The book starts out right away grabbing your (or at least my) attention, with the current sheriff of Eternity falling to pieces, literally. The pace after that continues at a pleasurable rate.
My first bone to pick is the number of businessess and stores in Eternity. Granted it is a tourist town, but would they really have a cryogenics lab. Other than that, I felt like the town was very likable and life-like.
Some of my favorite parts were when they discovered why the MO of the killer kept changing. Exquisite. The ending was taut and fast-paced. I almost couldn't finish it, because I was jumping up and down so much, with anticipation.
This book is for anybody who likes mysteries, horror, or even loose science fiction. Also this includes some interesting information on Jack the Ripper.
I loved every minute of this book. It's sure to stay on my bookshelf for a while, and provide an eternity of entertaining reading.
Now, if they'd only make a movie.....

Tamara Thorne always makes me happy when it comes to buying and reading books. Her imagination knows no limits and her style is fluid and concise, not to mention she knows when to make books racy and when to make them gory, she never throws everything she's capable of in, each book has its share of brilliance and is unusual in its own way.

This time the author has created a fictional town of Eternity, California, isolated of course from help and sanity and stirred in a whole bunch of wacky characters. Thorne is amazing at giving life to her creations; the main character was never the only person that stood out, the whole community that occupies Eternity was real in my eyes every time I plunged back into the book. When the town has bad luck with keeping their sheriff position occupied for more than few months, they invite Zach Tully to take the spot - freshly open after the last sheriff met with a gruesome death in the legendary Icehouse Mountain. Front the start he is aware that there are way too many mysteries about what is going in the town. Secret societies, serial killer on the loose, sightings of Bigfoot, people wandering around who seem to have lived for more than a century, it all seems too much for Tully, but after loosing his family to the Backdoor killer back home he found this to be an escape that helped him stay alive. Pretty soon he discovers that the mayor is anything but helpful when it comes to the investigation and dead bodies start to appear at all times. He must race time to figure out which one of the crazy characters is the killer before he's struck down himself. Twists and turns galore this book was intense and I loved every minute of the chase.

Eternity is an insane place I would never want to visit, separated from everything that would keep one safe, basically its hell on Earth in bad winter weather and the dead bodies that appear to be killed in extremely creative and gruesome ways pile up like mad. I had a hard time trying to figure out who the killer was and I must admit that Thorne made sure it was hard but also very fun. With references to Jack the Ripper, the murderer was very clever and extremely good at his job, too many people were sneaked up on when they least expected it. I have thoroughly enjoyed this tale and can't wait to read more of her work, I only wish this book was a tiny bit shorter, it seems to have so much death I couldn't wait to finally get to the end and see who the maniac was.

- Kasia S.

This has to be the only amusing (as in laughable) books about a serial killer I ever read!

Zach Tully has decide to retire from the LAPD after his wife and son's death. He's been offered a job as sheriff in Eternity, a small town in the mountains of California that relies on tourists for their bread and butter.The town boasts of their own little stonehenge on Icehouse mountain. A circle of rocks that has a mind altering wave of energy emitting from within. There also been reports of UFO activity and Bigfoot sightings.There are lunatics from Shady Pines sanitarium and a serial killer running loose too.

If Tully had done his homework on Eternity he would have gone elsewhere.

In my own warped sense of humor, here's were the tragic comedy starts. The serial killer has no preference it seems in who he kills or how it's done. Before Tully gets a break from the scene of one crime, there's a report of another murder. Tully, who is reputed as a serial killer specialist having caught 2 back in LA, just can't figure this mystery out fast enough. I thought by the time I finished this book, everyone in the town would be dead. I suppose that would have narrowed the suspects down. The serial killer can't believe Tully can't figure it out either. Especially with all the clues he keeps leaving him. Very entertaining. Not for the squeamish.

Tamara Thorne is turning out to be one of my favorite writers. I was surprised when I read Eternity because her previous two books, Haunted and Moonfall, were tradiitonal horror novels. Eternity, on the other hand, is more like half fantasy, half mystery. Still, like her other books, Eternity was fast paced and well written. The main characters were engaging and the residents in the town of Eternity itself were quite entertaining. All in all, Eternity is a great book - just not a horror book.

What a wacky group of characters! This is the first book that I have read by Tamara Thorne but it will not be the last. Eternity is a mixture of suspense, horror and a touch of science fiction/ fantasy. Although the writer did not "tie up" all the loose ends, it is still a great story. Also there is a slight problem with the number of businesses in a this small town. With less than 500 population Eternity had several restaurants/night clubs, resorts, stores, an asylum etc.....My wife's aunt lives in a town of 500 population and all they have is a BP station.

This was one of those books where you just have to suspend your disbelief and go along for the ride. It wasn't a horrifying as I thought it was going to be, or maybe I've just become inured to murder and mutilation in stories. (Scary thought, that.) It was pretty clear-cut as to who the killer was in both locations, and any other town faced with that number of dead bodies would have surely called in the FBI. But leaving all that aside, it was an interesting premise, with a stalwart but emotionally wounded hero, a heroine who's rediscovered her personal strength, and a child who wasn't obnoxious.

Eternity was another one of Tamara Thorne's novels that keeps you interested until the end. It is about the town people of Eternity and they have a secret that nobody wants to let out. This secret that they hide is terrifying everyone but nobody will say anything. The ending was a total shock as was with Tamara's other books. It keeps you guessing "who done it" and when was this person going to strike again and How?? There was always another way he killed people and it was messy and gory everytime!