MINE

Laura Clayborne faces a terrifying journey into a world of madness and obsession when her newborn son is taken from the hospital by Mary Terrell, a battered survivor of the radical Sixties who now lives in her own hallucinatory world of murderous rage

Primarily a writer of supernatural horror, McCammon ( Stinger ) here abandons the supernatural without forsaking the grisly details. Mary Terrall, aka Mary Terror, one-time member of the Storm Front, a Weatherman splinter group of the '60s, is now 40-something and psychotic. During her dreary day job at Burger King she mentally murders customers; at night she does LSD and dreams of having babies and joining Lord Jack, the Storm Front leader. Deciding to search him out, Mary cases a local hospital and steals the newborn son of Laura Clayborne, whose marriage is disintegrating. With nothing to hold her, Laura sets out after Mary and the baby, tracking them through remnants of the revolutionary group on a trail strewn with dead bodies. McCammon undercuts his story by portraying all his left-wing characters as motivated by adolescent rebellion , rather than by radical politics. That aside, however, he delivers an expertly constructed novel of suspense and horror.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When her newborn son is kidnapped by a former Sixties radical with a violent, tumultuous past (her nickname is "Mary Terror"), thirtysomething yuppie Laura Clayborne takes matters into her own hands and pursues Mary across the country, pausing only for an occasional shootout or Big Mac. Unlikely coincidences and shabby dialog abound, as Laura enlists the aid of Mary's formerly radical but now repentant cohort. The story inexorably winds down to a final confrontation in northern California. McCammon ( Usher's Passing, LJ 8/84, and Mystery Walk, LJ 6/1/83) has built a respectable following among horror/suspense fans, and this should please them despite its pulpish overtones. Purchase also to mollify rabid fans of Stephen King, since McCammon often reads like a watered-down version of the master.
- Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.