THE DROWNING KIND

5 stars out of 5

Mysterious and spooky, altogether ookey, I say with a nod to "The Addams Family" theme song lyrics. And to make matters even more creepy, I was so close to the end that I took it upstairs to finish before I turned out the bedroom light to go to sleep. Do not - repeat, do not - do that. Even if you're got just one chapter to go, finish it in daylight hours.

Let me warn out the outset, though, that the story leans far more toward Stephen King's version of creepy than your average psychological thriller. So if you can't get into the concept of a man growing "Thinner" day by day because he consumed a piece of cherry pie, this book probably isn't for you. I, however (huge Stephen King fan that I am) have no problem with otherworldly things that go bump in the night.

In this case, they tend to go bump in the deep, dark pool. It's more of a health spa, used for decades by people looking for miracle cures even though it's on private property. At one time, an upscale hotel drew guests from far and wide; now, it's owned by a young woman named Lexie, who inherited the property and the house that was built on it from her grandmother. Clearly, Lexie has mental issues - thought to be manic by her family including her semi-estranged sister Jackie (Jax).

But then, something awful happens; Lexie turns up dead, apparently having drowned in the now-gate-protected pool. When Jax gets the call, she not only feels great sadness, but guilt because she hasn't responded to a flurry of calls from her sister in recent days. When she returns to the Brandenburg, New Hampshire, property, she soon learns that Lexie had been frantically conducting research on the history of the property and the pool - which in fact has been the scene of many other deaths since the late 1920s.

Through flashback chapters, readers learn about Ethel Monroe, a newlywed back in 1929 who wants a baby and learns about the pool's healing powers which include, rumor has it, the granting of wishes. The problem? What the pool giveth, it taketh away; it's tit for tat, and no wish comes true without a corresponding loss of some kind. Certainly everyone who has begged the pool for help over the years has paid a price, from Ethel back then to Jax and Lexie now. The ending is one I expected - nothing else, I think, would have worked - but that doesn't mean it's a welcome one (especially late at night when you want to fall asleep after closing the book).

The story does get a little repetitive, mostly as accounts of what happened or is happening are shared among the various characters. But that's really not a criticism; it's a riveting tale from beginning to end. The bottom line? Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with a pre-release copy to read and review.

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon (Gallery/Scout Press, April 2021); 285 pp.

BURNTOWN

5 stars out of 5

Mesmerizing! But since the book seriously flirts with the paranormal - which I didn't realize going in - I'm both surprised that I liked it at all and astounded that I absolutely loved it. Fact is, if this one doesn't make the best-seller list, I'll consider it a travesty. 

Most chapters are named for various characters, a technique that usually doesn't work well for me, mostly because at my age I tend to forget who's who rather easily. It didn't matter a whit here, though - testimony, I think, to the author's ability to make each character unique and memorable as well as leave written breadcrumbs, if you will, that make the whole thing easy to follow. Early on, a 10-year-old boy named Miles Sandeski watches as his mother is murdered - a crime for which his father is charged. Miles knows better, but he's so young, and the story he tells so absurd, that no one believes him.

His father had, however, told his young son of plans he'd hidden for an ultra-dangerous secret machine that was never built - thought to have been stolen from the workshop of Thomas Edison. Miles found the plans and managed to heed his late father's warning until he was a grown man - a teacher, musician, inventor, husband to wife Lily and father of two children: A son Errol and younger daughter Eva. 

The inventor in Miles takes over his better judgment, and he builds the machine in the family's shed in back of their house on the river. Then one day, the unthinkable happens: Miles drowns in a flash flood, leaving Eva and her mother homeless. Eva, who nearly drowned herself, never really believes her mother's claim that the machine is responsible for her father's death.

Everything from that day forward is considered "After the Flood," and because Eva's mother insists someone known as "Snake Eyes" is out to kill them, she and Eva take to the shadowy streets below the bridges of thriving Ashford, Vermont. Now called Necco (after her favorite candy as a child), Eva and Lily live in an underworld populated by "fire eaters," or women who live off the grid at the river's edge and are known for inhaling herbs called the "devil's snuff." 

Then suddenly, Lily dies - an apparent suicide - forcing Necco to survive on the streets any way she can. Along the way she finds a boyfriend; just as he is about to reveal what could be clues to her past, he's murdered in the junk car in which they've been living. Now alone, she meets Theo, a talented high school senior who owes a potload of money to a man willing to kill to get it back, and Pru, a seriously overweight lady who serves up food in a school cafeteria by day and puts a whole new spin on night life. 

As these intriguing but incongruous characters come together in a tenuous, I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine sort of relationship, so do details of Eva's life Before the Flood. Several twists and turns later, Eva (and readers) finally learn what really happened. All I can say without giving away too much is this: If you start this book, get cozy for at least the last hour or so - from then on, you won't be able to put it down.

Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance review copy. 

Burntown by Jennifer McMahon (Doubleday, April 2017); 304 pp.