A cave expedition takes a wrong turn in Taylor Adam’s new nail-biting thriller, “Her Last Breath.”
Allie invites her best friend Tessa on her first cave excursion through the Devil’s Staircase, an isolated logging-forest cave in the Cascade Range and the most dangerous cave on record. Its beauty and dramatic landscape lure amateurs to explore its extreme rock formations and millions of burrowed tons of earth and untrustworthy crawlspaces.
Hikers and cave enthusiasts must take precautions when exploring the caves, but most ignore the warnings: do not cave after sunset and do not travel alone. Those red-flag cautions don’t stop Allie and Tessa; they set out to discover the underground cavern on their own.
Midway through the claustrophobic, shoulder-width channel, they meet a man named Jacob, who tells the women he works for a logging company that owns the land and is checking the cave for fungi. This chance meeting with the mysterious fellow begins a dangerous game of survival.
Adam cranks the tension and suspense into high-level anxiety in this single-sitting read that will leave readers breathless and on the edge of their seats. It is a slam-dunk experience.
An incessant battle against demons ensues when the Cherish family moves into a house that may be haunted in Aimee Pokwatka’s unsettling and thought-provoking new novel, “Accumulation.”
Tenn Cherish moves into a house that her husband, Ward, bought for her, along with their two young children, Aisling and Anders, and the sweet family dog, Gogo.
As the slow-burn novel progresses, mounting uncertainty and a foreboding atmosphere bring an endless stream of strange occurrences. First, Tenn notices, quite discerningly, the steady drip of the faucet, night after night and day after day.
Then a creepy old doll appears randomly throughout the house, inside and out, and neither Tenn nor the rest of the family understand the toy’s perplexing existence. Still, the tipping point for everyone is the discovery of a human tooth beneath the floorboards.
Who does it belong to? How did it get there?
Pokwatka is a gifted writer whose narrative is steeped in fear and horror. Snippets of the family’s declining mental health amid the disturbing ghostly encounters slowly illustrate the pinnacle of the story’s revelations. As more exasperating and peculiar episodes unfold, each character questions the others’ intentions behind the wayward choices they make throughout the gut-wrenching journey. “Is that a metaphor?” they ask each other, as the narrative builds to a satisfyingly odd conclusion that questions whether ghosts live among us or are the result of our actions.
Pokwatka delivers a stunning novel that asks questions, provokes thought, and opens a line of communication about human nature and good versus evil. It is a triumph.
Joy Fielding’s 31st novel, “Jenny Cooper Has a Secret,” is a disappointing, middle-of-the-road expedition about aging and family drama.
Seventy-six-year-old Linda Davidson tries to adjust to life and move forward after her husband’s death and her best friend’s dementia diagnosis. She finds herself alone and lost, wandering through life without a purpose.
Her daughter Kleo and her husband Mick move into Linda’s house to keep her company, but the couple’s constant bickering drives Linda to make unusual, impulsive decisions that will affect the family and result in dire consequences.
Escaping the turmoil at home, Linda visits her friend Carol, who lives at Legacy Place, a memory care facility, battling Alzheimer’s and other health issues. Linda finds it difficult to see her best friend declining from the ruthless disease, Carol not remembering who Linda is most days.
While visiting Carol a few times a week, Linda runs into another resident at the facility: Jenny Cooper, an eccentric ninety-two-year-old busybody who confides in Linda her secret: she kills people.
When one of the residents is found dead a week later in his room after choking, Linda faces the reality that Jenny Cooper may have killed him.
Is Jenny telling Linda the truth, or is she really crazy?
Fielding’s writing has its usual page-turning flair. However, the narrative meanders through many topics. It sometimes includes unnecessary side plots and cringy subject matter, leaving a rash of unanswered questions for the reader to decipher by the end of the novel. This is not the author’s strongest effort.