The Hides

After years upon years of too much, too loud, too bloody, too graphic, Kealan Patrick Burke arrives on the scene to give us a more mature and subtle approach to the horror tale. A kind of Medium meets Stand By Me, the story is as much a sensitive coming of age novel as it is a horror story, and as such we CARE about the characters. I think this is easily one of the best horror novels of 2005. No question about it.

Now, Mr. Burke...give us more of the same!

Mr. Burke is a gifted author in the tradition of Charles Grant, and The Turtle Boy quietly makes your skin crawl. Great stuff!

Brief background: this is the sequel to The Turtle Boy, which is one of the best horror novellas of recent years. A young boy, Timmy Quinn, and his friend stumble upon a young boy at the local pond. The boy is letting the turtles in the pond eat from his flesh...it's not long before Timmy realizes he can communicate with the dead. He soon has a mystery on his hands that involves not only the townfolk, but his own father.

Book two in the Timmy Quin series sees Timmy living in Ireland with his father and grandmother. Though he tries to escape his new "curse", he discovers that the dead can find him no matter where he goes. There is a ghost in his grandmother's house that has someting to tell him. And the factory where his father works is teeming with angry spirits who wish his lineage dead. (The Quinn family is pretty screwed up, now that i think about it.) And there is still the issue of just what his father's past holds.

Burke's prose is graceful and poingnant, and a lot of care has gone into this character. The series is fastly becoming one of my favorites. Like the X-files or Lost, the more it progresses aand answers questions, the more we find ourselves with new questions and secrets.

I highly recommnd picking up both The Turtle Boy and The Hides--Burke is sure to become one of horror's greats in a very short time.

I really am not one for reviews but after discovering Kealan Patrick Burke in a Cemetery Dance grab bag, I am now hooked. I chose to review this book because it was the first I read by aforementioned author. He's wordsmithery is good, really good. Without giving to much of the story away, it grabbed me right away, a great "ghost" story with feeling. Timmy Quinn is a character worth discovering for yourself. If you like goodness in book form, this is it. Mr. Burke, keep it up!!

Chris

Timmy Quinn’s father and mother are getting a divorce. Ever since the incident at Myers Pond, things have been going downhill. Each of them doing their best the last five years to not blame everything on Timmy and his gift (curse, as he sees it). However, whether it’s the stress, Timmy’s abilities, or the people showing up at their door to beg for Timmy’s help, really doesn’t matter their marriage is over.

Timmy and his father move to Ireland hoping for a new start. Timmy yearns, beyond hope, that things will be different. However, the dead have no boundaries; he knows this before they arrive. What he didn’t realize is what secrets lie in the small town of Dungarvan, Ireland or just how involved his family is in The Dead of Dungarvan’s revenge.

It’s rare for the second book in a series out master the first. However, though The Turtle Boy was a good read, in my opinion, Kealan has outdone himself with this second book. The Hides is darkly poetic. Reading it, I could almost smell the salty sea air, hear the waves rushing to the shore, see the unique mingling of the old and the new this coastal town has to offer. This book didn’t just tell me a story—one that sent chills down my spine and made the air on my arms stand straight—it took me thousands of miles away, across the Atlantic to the little harbor town of Dungarvan, if only for a short time.