Anyone who's read the recent series of new Thorne novels and reprints knows that her evil sense of humor drives plots full-tilt toward wild cinematic climaxes. These readers also know that she is subtly redrawing the California road map to suit her purposes, creating a host of communities you'd either never want to visit or which would swallow you whole and spit you out in bloody chunks just for fun if you stumbled onto them. Candle Bay and Eternity, Moonfall, Santo Verde, Red Cay and Madelyn, to name a few. And now add to the list the coastal hamlet of Caledonia, where the cool and pragmatic psychologist Will Banning treats a succession of nuts whose collective neuroses and paranoias would choke a bull elephant. Unfortunately for him, his world is about to be rocked. Thorne has decided to appeal to the conspiracy nut we all nurture within us, feeding our fears with a plot that throbs with menace both supernatural and man-made.
Suddenly Caledonia’s citizens -- and Will’s client list -- start seeing ghosts and apparitions, hearing voices, and worse. Some of them are driven to murder, others to suicide. Some are merely driven mad. As if that weren’t enough, Nature also seems to be rebelling. Flocks of birds dash themselves against windows, seals beach themselves for no reason, and people’s pets start freaking out. Now Will’s a skeptic who doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but when Will’s doctor friend Gabe and his lover Kevin begin experiencing a haunting in their house, Will has to admit something is going on. His childhood friend -- and secret love -- Maggie, a veterinarian, also suspects something’s throwing Nature out of balance. And Will’s cats -- the scene-stealing, tiger striped trio of Jung, Rorschach and Freud -- alert him to a presence in his own home. Can it be his dead big brother, Michael, who was killed in a gun accident when they were children? Will knows he was responsible for Michael’s death, but his obnoxious brother Pete covered it up, now using Will’s gratitude like a loan that can never be repaid. After a couple stints in the Navy, the insufferably shady Pete owns the town’s cable company.
What’s going on in Caledonia? Trust Thorne to never keep it simple. There are two things going on, one driving the other. And rather than ruin it, let’s just say that Will’s sleazy brother Pete is more than just a cable box huckster. In fact, Pete Banning rapidly becomes one of Thorne’s most intriguing antagonists, recalling some of James Blaylock’s understated perverts and then going them one or several better on the jerk-meter. Meanwhile Will Banning must face his divorce-imposed loneliness and the guilt he feels over his brother’s death. Is that why Michael whispers to him from under the bed? Is that why his loving cats won’t sleep in the bedroom any more?
Tamara Thorne’s keen wit allows for the clever in-joke, the pun, the name-dropping reference. And the cameo, like Coastal Eddie, Candle Bay’s conspiracy-minded DJ, as well as Haunted’s Stephen King-like David Masters. Her characters are funny and charming, sometimes clueless about their own problems, and very, very real. Even Will Banning’s patients, secondary as they may be, quickly assume the vivid personalities of folks that might live in your neighborhood. The good guys are great, the bad guys are deliciously wicked, and there’s even a very serious -- and science-based -- subtext to make the horror aspects click into place. The novel’s thrust may be primarily sexy entertainment, but it’s never a hollow exercise. Still, when you think it’s getting too serious, Thorne manages to squeeze in a talking penis. Visit Thorne’s wacky California and be glad you can leave when you turn the last page.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
