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Sebastian Ritscher
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HOKULOA ROAD

Elizabeth Hand

From Shirley Jackson Award-winner Elizabeth Hand comes a haunting and atmospheric new mystery perfect for fans of "White Lotus", about a young man hired to work as a caretaker in Hawaii who is drawn into the island's darkest secrets.
Grady Kendall applies to work as a live-in caretaker for a luxury property in Hawai'i on a whim - it's as far from small-town Maine as he can imagine. But within days he's on a flight toward beautiful Kolihi'i and his new home, a remote mansion on legendary Hokuloa Road.
With little to do, Grady settles into a lonely routine, one that slowly reveals a lesser-known side of Kolihi'i's reputation: it seems the island has long been a place where people go missing. When the next to disappear is Jessie, a young woman from Grady's flight in, Grady becomes determined - and soon desperate - to figure out what's happened to her, and to all those staring out of the "lost" posters that paper the island.

But maintaining an alliance with Raina, Jessie's best friend, is anything but easy, and with a sinister presence stalking his every step, Grady can only hope he'll find the answer before it's too late . . . and that it might hold the key to what's been terrorizing Kolihi'i all along.

Elizabeth Hand is the author of more than fifteen cross-genre novels and collections of short fiction. Her work has received the Shirley Jackson Award (three times), the World Fantasy Award (four times), the Nebula Award (twice), as well as the James M. Tiptree Jr. and Mythopoeic Society Awards. She's a longtime critic and contributor of essays for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Salon, Boston Review, and the Village Voice, among many others. She divides her time between the Maine coast and North London.
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Published 2022-07-19 by Mulholland Books

Comments

Set in a Hawaii so vividly imagined I'm still shaking sand out of my shoes, Elizabeth Hand's perfectly crafted ghost story is exactly the comfort-destroying read you need on a long, lonely night.

... fast-burn thriller fans will be waiting for... refreshingly and originally creepy.

Horror collides with amateur sleuthing here as the island's protective spirits seek justice for a predator's crimes against its sacred space and its adopted people. Hand, author of the iconic 12 Monkeys, is a master at genre-blending stories that feature carefully dosed supernatural malevolence. Here, she wields that mix of horror and thriller to draw together a cast of sympathetically awkward, fiercely loyal outcasts. Another strange, satisfying winner.

This is the perfect book for your summer beach bag -- an evocative mystery set in a tropical island paradise. The locals warn that Hokuloa Road is dangerous, but I was completely enthralled by its scenery and secrets!

Swift-moving yet deliberate, establishing thick connections between the natural world and the numinous forces behind it, Hokuloa Road would make a great dramatic TV miniseries. Call it Hawaii-666.

Somehow, Elizabeth Hand has made Hawaii an unsettling destination. A hallmark of greatness, of course, and Hand is full of them. The book is one singular intensification, from apprehension to alarm, seclusion to alienation. You might do worse than to score a caretaker's gig on a gorgeous island, but Hokuloa Road suggests otherwise. Horror fans, be seated.

If Lost had been written by Jane and Paul Bowles, with some input from Stephen King, then it might read something like Hokolua Road. I guess I just could have called it a tropical version of The Shining, given the set-up: an out-of-work builder from Maine accepts a job as a live-in caretaker for a remote Hawaiian estate owned by reclusive and eccentric tech billionaire. He's out of his element, far from help, and mysterious things just keep happening... But is it all in his admittedly messed-up head, or is the land itself rejecting him?

Atmospheric... Hand neatly balances tense action with rich environmental ambience, and the supernatural with the darkly human. She remains a writer to watch.

Elizabeth Hand has been one of my favorite authors since Wylding Hall, so when I opened Hokuloa Road I knew I'd get her signature mix of deeply evocative prose, sinister surroundings, and fascinating characters. I was right, but even as a long time Hand Fan, I was completely blown away by this book. Hokuloa Road is twisty and dark, easily one of the best thrillers I've read, but it's so much more than that, too. It's thoughtful and pensive, smart and scary, and exhilarating as you realize that you're in the hands of a master storyteller. After reading this book, I promise, Elizabeth Hand is going to become one of your favorite authors, too.

France: Le Seuil

[B]rilliantly atmospheric.