Into The Black Nowhere by Meg Gardiner
This novel is not darkly satisfying. What is glass spall? This sequel to ‘Unsub’ isn’t as intense as that book. Caitlin Hendrix is now an FBI agent working at the Behavioral Analysis Unit. A serial killer (quite obviously based on Ted Bundy) is roaming Texas and the FBI have to stop him.
The serial killer is revealed less than a third of the way in. The rest of the novel is spent with the FBI trying to stop his twisted fantasy. Gardiner makes many digs at serial killer groupies and one suspects she has experience with and disproves of ‘Hannibal’ fangirls and fanfic. There are detrimental consequences to everything and the serial killer is your garden variety omnipotent psycho into cutting up women.
Best Lines:
“That was what normal women did: trusted.”
“Bait agent.”
“Kidnap kit.”
“There’s no going back, no pretending he’s innocent.”
“Impact splatter.”
“Statement kill.”
“If a psychopath can’t have what he wants, he’ll destroy it.”
“Devalued anything loving.”
“Got himself some clothes that made him look like a trucker.”
“Desolate place to lie for eternity.”
“Believe, and die.”
“He wasn’t grateful to her.”
~
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn
The first in a post-apoc series that was inspired by the author’s short story ‘Amaryllis’. A long time after The Fall, various communities scratch out a living by working to the limits of human capability to survive. When a murder occurs, a woman questions the adaptive tendency of humans and the aggrieved denials that anything is wrong with the utopian society they live in.
The bitter resentments of the chillingly resourceful, generally hostile survivors are laid bare. This was not innovative or audacious as the unpretty inhabitance of the ruined future is laid bare in maddeningly unhurried fashion. This was dull as silent and fearful people oscillate between despair and rage leading to a logical culmination of events. Ultra angry types live on a dark and dangerous edge in the unrelentingly harsh future. This has no poignant charm as it shows the enormous consequences to a humanity that has run out of options. Fragile civility cracks and this was boring and I won’t bother with the sequel.
Best Lines:
“The last who remembered.”
“Neighbors hadn’t wanted him.”
“But that had been a very long time ago.”
“What the ruins were really like and what kind of people could possibly be living there.”
“She had friends, had lots of people to talk to. Right up until she didn’t.”
“Enact such a shunning.”
“No longer serving any kind of purpose.”
“Going into places where you’re a stranger and no one likes you.”
“It had all been so awful for such a long time.”