Cuando Rainey Teague pierde a sus padres en circunstancias trágicas y misteriosas, Kate Kavanaugh decide acoger al pequeño pese a las objecciones de su marido, Nick, detective de Niceville. Los problemas de la pareja no se acaban aquí: también deben hacer frente a la desaparición del padre de Kate y acoger a su hermana Beth, que ha sido víctima de malos tratos, y a sus hijos. La ciudad entera de Niceville sufre una especie de plaga de desapariciones, mientras la conducta de Rainey empeora cada vez más, hasta hacerles sospechar que sus brotes de violencia puedan guardar relación con todos estos acontecimientos extraños.

I can't tell you how happy I was to see this, the followup to Niceville. I truly thought this was the end, but now I just found out there'll be a third novel. Fantastic.

Anyway, I said most of what I wanted to say in my review of Niceville. As far as I'm concerned Niceville and this book are one, a single entity.

Others seem to be either quite taken, or quite disappointed in the story's tone. There's a large chunk that's part police procedural and part action thriller. It feels a lot like a slightly less cynical [a:Elmore Leonard|12940|Elmore Leonard|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1240015224p2/12940.jpg] with the actiony bits written by [a:Jonathan Maberry|72451|Jonathan Maberry|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1275853898p2/72451.jpg]. But then there's the creepy horror stuff, Southern Gothic, and also well done. Think [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg] crossed with [a:Joe R. Lansdale|58971|Joe R. Lansdale|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1200406474p2/58971.jpg].

Seriously, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. I've never read anything else quite like it. One minute, you're speeding down the road in a 200 mph car chase, the next, you're dealing with dead people warning you of the malevolent Nothing, then you're back to seriously grounded reality again.

It's frigging brilliant.

At this point, I kind of don't care what else Stroud has written, I'll read it. The guy's killer. ( )

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/626245334?book_show_action=true&from_r... ( )

The Homecoming by Carsten Stroud is the second novel in a series that started with Niceville two years ago. My initial review of Niceville was very positive with the regret that I felt Stroud had tried to do too much with the book. Was it a mystery? A crime novel? A ghost story? Or somehow with great ambition, Stroud tried to make it all three. He did well but I felt he left much unsaid. In The Homecoming, Carsten Stroud continues the tale and begins to fill in what was missing in Niceville.

...And only last night, right here where he was standing, right on these steps, Kate had opened these same black doors onto a thing that had no explanation, no framework, no reason to exist that fit into any of the outer world's reality. It was utterly strange, and it was hostile--hate filled, hungry, mindless--something out of a nightmare world, something alien and terrifying and inexplicable.
The both saw it, Nick and Kate.
And they both saw the woman--the image of the woman--who had stepped out of that old mirror in a haze of green light and confronted the thing in the doorway. They had recognized her from an old picture. It was a woman named Glynis Ruelle, who had died in 1939. This had actually happened last night...

Nick and Kate Kavanaugh, having so recently survived the events that resulted in finding the missing child Rainey Teague. Rainey who somehow stared into an antique mirror and then disappeared only to be found later buried in a sealed crypt. A crypt that hadn't been opened in over a hundred years. Now Nick and Kate have sheltered Kate's sister and her two children as well from an abusive husband and father. A husband, Byron Dietz who had just been stopped in possession of stolen bank money. A robbery that had killed several of Nick's fellow officers.
There are millions of dollars missing. Cops dead. FBI questioning everyone. A plane crashing into a murder of crows. And beneath it all. A small boy possessed of ghosts. Ghosts who want to live again.

..."Are you coming with me?" Anora asked.
Talitha shook her head.
"No, Missus. I wish I might. I can't."
"Yes you can. I forgive you. It's not too late for you. You can go to the pastor at Plaquemine and confess. To a judge. You can...atone."
"Missus, I believe I done that already. For what I done to you, Mister London has killed me."
"Killed you?"
"Yessum. Mister London has killed me with a rope down in the box maze and now I am hung in the juniper willow with a note I never wrote pinned to my dress. Mister London, he don't collect I never got my letters, but Second Samuel knows."
She paused for a moment, as if listening.
"They calling for me now, Missus. My run is done. I am bound for unconsecrated ground, because I am a whore and a murderess. I only come to take you to the mirror. Remember me to Second Samuel, if you can. He was a fine daddy to me, and I am sorry I was such a bad daughter..."

And did I mentioned there was also a mob enforcer bent on finding the missing robbery money for himself?
As with Niceville, Stroud packs The Homecoming with a cast of characters and dialogue not seen much these days. In fact you may have to go back to William Diehl's Sharky's Machine for wit like you will find here.
A terrific read and setting up the third book which I hope is soon to come. ( )

a mini-review...
The Homecoming is an excellent 2nd book in the Niceville trilogy. The book is well-paced, interesting, action-packed, creepy, and multi-layered. My biggest complaint is with the actions of one of the main characters, Kate.

AS someone who is inclined in the direction Stroud is drawing Kate, I can say definitively that there are lines, that the line(s) was/were crossed, and that it was not realistic that she responded the way she did. I felt that she was used as a tool in a plot, and that there were other ways Stroud could accomplish what he sought out to accomplish.

I'm being vague here so as not to ruin anything!

But it's not all that important because, even with that weakness, the overall book and plot and characters are great, enjoyable, and recommended!

of 5 ( )