Product Description

Attempting to come to terms with a failed marriage and longing for his son, Peter Travers's struggle to build a new life is haunted by mysterious visions of a woman and child as the spirits of the past come alive and a dark and terrible secret refuses to die. Reprint. AB.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1222177 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Blaylock's characters are subjected to the visitations of unquiet spirits and otherwise frightening events in this good but uneven first ghost-story offering from this award-winning fantasy novelist ( Lord Kelvin's Machine ). Seventy years ago in southwest California, Dr. Landry killed his wife's lover when he found them together; she then flung herself and her illegitimate son over a nearby cliff. Dr. Landry disappeared. Unaware of the bloody murder, architectural draftsman Peter Travers now lives in the Landrys' old cabin. When his ex-wife Amanda and their son David disappear just before the two are to go on a vacation to Hawaii, Travers's anguish is exacerbated by the appearance of ghostly apparitions, some of whom seem to be Amanda and David, while others are the figures of those involved in the earlier tragedy. Also plagued by spectral visitations are Lance Klein, a real estate developer with a shady past and Bernard Pomeroy, a deeply disturbed salesman with an eye for blackmail. While the tale is marked by good prose, believable dialogue and fine description, the plot soon wears thin. Travers's search for Amanda and David is almost totally eclipsed by the machinations of Pomeroy and his interplay with Klein, and the ghostly visions never produce the frisson of horror that this genre requires.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A ghostly wind blows across the valleys of Southern California, scattering pieces of a long-forgotten story of murder and revenge across the lives of a group of people whose own struggles resonate to the tale's dark music. The author of The Paper Grail (Ace: Berkeley, 1992) invests a complex story of failed marriages and shady business deals with mythic overtones as elusive as the eerie wind that forms the primary motif of this hauntingly moody novel. Gracefully written and splendidly told, this is a strong candidate for fantasy and general fiction collections.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Peter and Beth are still struggling to define their relationship when his ex-wife and son, instead of going to Hawaii, mysteriously disappear. While trying to find them, Peter hears of a woman and boy who apparently leaped from a cliff to their deaths--but whose bodies can't be found. Besides these predicaments, an odious character named Pomeroy is trying, as part of a mysterious real estate scam, to force people out of their homes in the Southern California canyon country where Peter lives. These threads come together during a single weekend as Pomeroy's loathsome tactics are linked to his employer, Beth's next door neighbor Klein; one of Pomeroy's victims apparently is connected to the mystery woman and boy; Pomeroy descends into psychopathic violence; and Klein, Beth, and Peter must each combat the uncanny forces threatening them and their loved ones. The unraveling of the plot's circumstances connects Blaylock's protagonists with a generations-old misery as he masterfully employs the night and the wind to conjure the eerie and terrifying menace threatening their hitherto mundane lives. Dennis Winters

Customer Reviews

Spooky
This is unlike most of the stuff that Blaylock has written already so if you're expecting the same old stories, get ready for something a bit different. He tackles ghost stories this time out and while the themes are nearly the same as always, basically normal everyday people trying to cope with the extraordinary (or just plain weird) and as usual set in California. But it gets waaayy different from there, for the first time things are really frightening, this is the darkest book he might have ever written. And his characters feel more real for once, mostly gone are the likable but quirky folks who populate his other books, here everyone is just like you and me, they have their flaws and benefits just the same as anyone else. And I don't think he's ever written a character as odious as Pomeroy, he's quite the convincing psychopath. As for the ghost part, well that's not all that clear but then it's a ghost story it's not supposed to make perfect sense. What counts here is the atmosphere and the pages are dripping with wind and dark and the nighttime and all the horrors that it brings. Not really scary but certainly gets you into the novel and helps you live in the character's world. In essence this is the most "mature" book he's ever done, tackling more serious subjects of relationships (both starting and ending them), abnormal psyches, sexuality, all the good stuff that's in the world the rest of us live in. In short this is the book that we may not have all been waiting for, but knew he was capable of doing all the same and I for one am not complaining.

Very disappointed
This book had it's moments, but overall it was slow. There was just to much of Peter and his new girlfriend's son that didn't add much to the story. Also, the ending just made me go "what?"

I was VERY disappointed in the end. There was a great build up to the mystery, however nada was ever fully explained. None of the questions are really answered. I really wanted to know what happened to his ex-wife & son. How did they disappear??? I was just disappointed w/ this book & after the ending I donated book to local library.

The storyline w/ Pomeroy was the most interesting. He was a great character, however, we never learned about the Linda he mentioned. Someone he stalked before????

If you want to read this book go to your local library.

Very disappointed
This book had it's moments, but overall it was slow. There was just to much of Peter and his new girlfriend's son that didn't add much to the story. Also, the ending just made me go "what?"

I was VERY disappointed in the end. There was a great build up to the mystery, however nada was ever fully explained. None of the questions are really answered. I really wanted to know what happened to his ex-wife & son. How did they disappear??? I was just so disappointed w/ this book & after the ending I donated book to local library.

The storyline w/ Pomeroy was the most interesting. He was a great character, however we never learned about the Linda he mentioned. Someone he stalked before????

If you want to read this book go to your local library.