Mine [Unknown Binding]

Robert R Mccammon (Author)

Book Description

A mother fights to rescue her newborn from a six-foot-tall madwoman

 

No one knows Mary Terrell’s real name. She killed a man during the climax of the Summer of Love, and for two decades she has changed her name and location regularly, always keeping watch over her shoulder for the FBI. She has three passions: LSD, firearms, and children. She visits toy stores a few times a week, picking out a baby doll to take home and treat as a child. The new family always starts out happy, but when the baby refuses to eat, Mary gets angry. Murdered dolls fill her closet, and the woman who calls herself Mary Terror is tired of children made of plastic.

 

Laura Clayborne’s marriage gives her little joy, but she can’t wait for her son to come into the world. But if Mary Terror has her way, it won’t be long before he leaves it again.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert McCammon asks, "What happened to those children of the sixties who learned the language of hatred, who swore oaths upon their bloodstained manifestos and vowed to never surrender?" Most went on to other lifestyles. But Mary Terrell, a.k.a. "Mary Terror," did not change. Her insanity deepened into schizophrenia, and in the late '80s she still calls herself "freedom fighter for those without rights in the Mindfuck State." Hallucinating, heavily armed, and possessed by the delusion that an infant son will restore the good ol' days with her ex-lover, Mary steals a baby. But the child's mother is a strong, resourceful woman, and she recruits an ex-radical to help her. What ensues is a hair-raising chase across the American Midwest in wintertime, toward a final confrontation in which both "mothers" proclaim, "He's mine." Not only is Mine an intense horror novel (winner of a Bram Stoker Award), but refreshingly, all three main characters are women. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Primarily a writer of supernatural horror, McCammon ( Stinger ) here abandons the supernatural without forsaking the grisly details. Mary Terrall, aka Mary Terror, one-time member of the Storm Front, a Weatherman splinter group of the '60s, is now 40-something and psychotic. During her dreary day job at Burger King she mentally murders customers; at night she does LSD and dreams of having babies and joining Lord Jack, the Storm Front leader. Deciding to search him out, Mary cases a local hospital and steals the newborn son of Laura Clayborne, whose marriage is disintegrating. With nothing to hold her, Laura sets out after Mary and the baby, tracking them through remnants of the revolutionary group on a trail strewn with dead bodies. McCammon undercuts his story by portraying all his left-wing characters as motivated by adolescent rebellion , rather than by radical politics. That aside, however, he delivers an expertly constructed novel of suspense and horror.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Simon Schuster Trade
• ISBN-10: 0671311956
• ISBN-13: 978-0671311957
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,211,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert McCammon is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels, including the award-winning Boy's Life and Speaks the Nightbird. There are more than four million copies of his books in print. His latest novel, MISTER SLAUGHTER, is the third book in the Matthew Corbett series. It is available now from Subterranean Press. Look for THE FIVE in Spring 2011!

Visit his websites: www.robertmccammon.com and www.matthewcorbettsworld.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A BRILLIANT, TWISTING, SCAREY STORY, October 17, 1998

By 

Robert C. Ricci - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mine (Mass Market Paperback)

If you liked Dean Koontz's INTENSITY, you'll love this book which contains many of the same elements including a calculating psychotic killer, and a victim who struggles against insurmountable obstacles .... in this case to rescue her baby from a madwoman. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is one of the best in this genre, and the characters are drawn superbly. It's a real page turner. I've always judged a thriller by its ability to surprise me at every next page, and this one wins hands down. If I can't guess what's going to happen next, I consider myself entertained. If you enjoy suspense thrillers, you'll love this one.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Terror is loose, and she wants your baby for her own, September 3, 2004

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mine (Mass Market Paperback)

Incredibly fast-paced thriller that will leave you turning the pages all night long. McCammon is an awesome author, usually tending more towards the traditional monsters, vampires, dead things, ghostly apparitions, and downright evil incarnations; but in `Mine', he has taken on the human monster and painted her with such ferocity that you are left wishing for something fanged and green under your bed.

Mary Terrell is an overweight and aging hippie, unstable and unable to let go of her past. Not the gentle past of flowers and peace and love, but of her persona as Mary Terror, member of the radical and violent Storm Front Brigade led by her old lover, Jack Gardiner, once known as Lord Jack.

Lost in the past and still dropping acid, Mary's last shred of sanity snaps when she kidnaps a baby from the hospital to take to Lord Jack, to replace the baby that was killed twenty years ago when the Storm Front was captured and disbanded.

The baby Mary kidnaps is tiny David Clayborne, newborn to Laura and Doug Clayborne. Just before her delivery, Laura discovers Doug is having an affair, ripping apart her perfect life of happily-ever-after in the suburbs with a BMW.

Laura is beyond desperate when David is discovered missing, and spurred into taking action on her own when the police drag their feet and Doug responds with inept mannerisms and hollow faith in the police.

With only her journalist's background to rely on, Laura leaves the hospital to track down Mary Terror, still weakened from childbirth but determined to get her baby back before Mary inadvertently kills him.

What we are left with is a fingernail-biting chase across three thousand miles, with close calls and near misses and horrific anxiety at every turn. `Mine' literally took my breath away, it was so gripping and tense, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

WARNING!! First chapter spoiler for the weak of heart. There is a horrifying scene in the first chapter portraying Mary's sickness, in which she tortures a baby. Relax, it's really a doll, but I almost threw the book down because of it. Keep going, the book is well worth the read.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MINE was an odyssey of terror of the human heart!, March 29, 2000

By 

MICHAEL GOODWIN - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mine (Mass Market Paperback)

This is only the 2nd book I have read by this awesome writer and I enjoyed it immensely. It was so different than the WOLF'S HOUR but equally as good if not better. The action fans out there (such as myself), will be satisfied with this authors work because it is chock full of action aplenty! Now, its not senseless violence - each action sequence has its purpose and is skillfully done, sometimes frightingly so. This book grabbed me from the first chapter, and it didn't want to let you go. The storyline and characters are 1st rate in my opinion - and I have well over 30-years of experience in reading all genres. This guys the bomb! I have SWAN SONG and GOIN SOUTH next to read - and I can't wait!