Product Description

Fifteen years ago, Dave Quinn swam out into the winter ocean to save two drowning girls--identical twin sisters. He was only able to save one. Now, years later, he meets Anne, a struggling artist from Canada. He has no idea that she is the child he saved so long ago. And he has no idea that Elinor, the long-dead sister he couldn't save, has come with her.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1309881 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Library Journal
Haunted by the memory of only being able to save one twin girl from drowning, Dave Quinn abandons surfing for a safe life in Earl Dalton's theater-props company in Huntington Beach, California. When Canadian artist Anne Morris is drawn back to the town where twin sister Elinor drowned 15 years before, she and Dave find themselves shadowed by Elinor's malevolent spirit. Earl's son Edmund believes that Elinor's spirit is Anne's dark side and obsessively pursues her. Blaylock's (All the Bells on Earth, LJ 11/15/95) vivid descriptions and deft characterizations place ordinary flawed people in escalating horrific situations. This contemporary ghost story exposes the underbelly of human nature and belongs in most fantasy and horror collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
More contemporary supernatural horror from the author of All the Bells on Earth (1995), etc. When surfer Dave Quinn saved a young girl from the sea, her twin sister eluded him and drowned. Now, 15 years later, Dave still lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., where he builds scenery for a theater warehouse owned by the rich Earl Dalton--this despite frequent clashes with Earl's creepy eldest son Edmund, whose interests include black magic, snuff movies, and defrauding Earl of various properties. The warehouse's latest employee is artist Anne Morris, whom Dave recognizes as the girl he saved. Anne's dead sister Elinor--a ghostly presence ever since she drowned--crafted a disturbing set of dolls and paintings, which Anne has kept. Edmund discovers the paintings and dolls and assumes they're Anne's; later, he's possessed by Elinor, discovers a secret entrance into Anne's apartment, and uses Elinor's dolls to set fires. Eventually, enraged by the growing closeness between Anne and Dave, and inspired by the evil Elinor, Edmund embarks on a campaign of arson, murder, kidnapping, and torture. A lovingly evoked ocean/beachscape, along with Blaylock's usual hardworking characters--but the drama never quite coheres, and the ending just dangles. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Bit of a surprise for Blaylock--A truly frightening villain.
James Blaylock really is a great writer of fantasy, but it's a peculiarly realistic sort of fantasy. Not for him the realms of wizards and elves of traditional "fantasy." Instead, he's writing a sort of contemporary fantasy wherein elements of ghost stories and suchlike enter into the everyday lives of his characters.

_Winter Tides_ is something of a change for Blaylock, at least in my reading of him. Most of his books that I've read have been peopled by quirky, gently humorous characters, generally allied against some sort of dark force which is ultimately clueless. In this novel, the villain is a very frightening person who graduates from mild pranks to outright murder in a realistic fashion. It's difficult to point out exactly when he goes over the edge. The effect is to make the outcome of events much less predictable and thus much more serious for the ragtag bunch of characters who represent the "good."

Very highly recommended.

A ghost story looking for a ghost
Blaylock has improved his storytelling skills over the years in leaps and bounds, making subtle changes to his style in nearly every novel. Not every thing he does succeeds absolutely but you have to give credit to the guy for trying. Here he attempts a spooky ghost story of revenge but as it turns out the ghost is hardly necessary at all . . . which maybe was the point. Fifteen years ago, Dave Quinn attempted to save twin girls from drowning . . . one didn't make it and he still feels guilty about it. Working for an eccentric old man (the closest Blaylock comes to one of his classic character stereotypes) and being constantly creeped out by the boss' son Edmund he eventually runs into Anne, who turns out to be the girl he managed to save, it was her sister Elinor who died that night. From there the tale becomes a story of gradually escalating obsessing, told mostly from the POV of Edmund, who is truly probably the sickest character Blaylock has ever written, I had to wonder about the author's mental state since he seemed to so perfectly capture the effortless madness of Edmund, how even the most depraved act makes perfect sense to his twisted mind. The kicker is that the ghost of Elinor is supposed to be pushing Edmund to do the things he does, inspiring him and whatnot but Elinor really never develops anything resembling a presence, besides moving stuff around and causing ghostly footsteps and appearing as misty human shapes in the air . . . there's not much else she does . . . fortunately when Blaylock keeps the focus on Edmund and his rather strange passions, life stays interesting and the suspense is nicely done even if toward the end it tends to dissolve into standard "We must stop the villain" stuff complete with cliched, "Let me explain my plan so that you have a chance to stop me" . . . fortunately Dave and Anne are fun characters and you do root for them to get together (even if little is done with it) . . . Dave Quinn is one of the more rounded characters to come down the Blaylock pipeline in a while and remains interesting on his own, especially since he does actively forward the plot, often times Blaylock protagonist let stuff happen to them for a while before they start reacting. All of these are minor flaws, while reading this pages literally flew and I finished this way faster than I thought I would . . . as a psychological study on sickness it's great, as a ghost story, well it's no Night Relics but you can't knock every one completely out of the park, can you? Any Blaylock fan can't go wrong here though.

Blaylock is one of the best!
Winter Tides is another very, very good book by one of the best authors of this genre. The only real complaints I have about Blaylock are 1) I wish he wrote books faster so I could read more!, and 2) This particular book had a villain that was just totally unredeemable. I have always liked, in the past, that there was often an understandable side to the villains (The Last Coin, of course, is an exception). Even his very worse were at least mildly amusing. But this book is a lot darker than his others. I would not recommend it to my preteen, for sure. All of that aside, once again, we have a fine book with protagonists that are admirable. Blaylock seems to have a fundamental optimism that shines through his stories. We like that. The character Anne could be better drawn, but I liked Dave. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy, or ghost stories. Still, though, our favorite Blaylock novels are Paper Grail, Magic Spectacles, the Disappearing Dwarf (and sequels). And, of course, The Digging Laviathan cannot be equalled. Still, read this new book! And Mr. Blaylock, please write more!