Synopsis
A playwright, composer, and the most sought-after celebrity, Hamilton Speke retreats to the enclave of his estate in San Francisco only to be confronted by Timothy Asquith, a man from Speke's youth who claims that Speke is a fraud.
Reviews
"Someone can't come back from the dead." Hamilton Speke, world-renowned playwright and protagonist of this compelling, lyrically written thriller, is sure of it. But what is he to make of the mysterious reappearance of his old drinking chum and creative cohort Timothy Asquith, who, Speke believed, died 20 years earlier of an alcohol or drug overdose? As Speke works on his "masterpiece" at his vast wooded estate outside San Francisco, Asquith surprises him and declares that he wants "it all. Everything that you have become." He insists that Speke's fame--attained for works based on Asquith's life--rightly belongs to him, and threatens to expose the playwright as a charlatan and plagiarist. Amidst murder and artful misdirection, Cadnum ( St. Peter's Wolf ) splices the narrative by introducing the thoughts and actions of Sarah, Speke's loyal assistant; Christopher Bell, his would-be biographer; and, most important, his enigmatic wife, Maria. Just when most readers will believe they've figured out the puzzle, another twist surprises. From start to astonishing finish, this good old-fashioned thriller delivers.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A celebrated playwright is stalked by his muse in Cadnum's first non-occult novel, an overwrought thriller that's nonetheless as effectively macabre as his supernatural yarns (St. Peter's Wolf, 1991, etc.). Hamilton Speke is the ``great man'' whose life shatters when he receives a call from Timothy Asquith, the long-lost writing partner of his youth, who--we know but Speke doesn't--has gone on to an obscure career as a serial killer while Speke has vaulted to world acclaim. Speke agrees to meet his old friend at Speke's estate; there, Asquith, glittering with malice, accuses Speke of stealing his early manuscripts and passing them off as his own, and demands all that Speke now possesses. Knowing that Asquith is telling the truth, Speke offers a cash settlement; Asquith, enraged, attacks Speke, who impales him on a fireplace mantel. Racked by guilt and fear, Speke buries Asquith; but time and again during the next few days, the playwright terrifyingly spies Asquith lurking among the estate's shadows. Has the victim returned to haunt his killer? Not at all, Speke learns, when in a frenzy he digs up Asquith's grave and finds only a rotting deer--forcing Asquith to reveal himself: The ``murder'' was only a vengeful bit of staging by Asquith, who--with the help of a surprise accomplice- -dug himself out of the grave, wiped off the fake blood, and posed as a ghost. Now that Speke knows he's alive, though, Asquith turns to his greatest skill--slaughter--and rampages through the estate, which he's set on fire, in a climactic bloodbath. When Speke tries to put out the fire, he is ``fighting chaos itself, the void that waits to thaw and flood, the black fire that consumes every human hope''--a typically overblown sentiment in Cadnum's hyperbolic horror tale, always gripping and smartly paced but usually shaded just this side of ludicrous--and sometimes not even. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
This fine novel of psychological horror places readers squarely in the middle of playwright Hamilton Speke's nightmare. Never sure himself how much of his work is original and how much borrowed from long-vanished pal Timothy Asquith, the writer feels guilt and rage when Asquith turns up, determined to claim Speke's success as his own. Speke kills and buries the intruder, but Asquith is still there, haunting him--and Asquith is a madman and a serial killer. The elliptical style keeps readers as uncertain as Speke about what is real, what only imagined, maintaining the suspense at a high level. Cadnum's highly praised previous novels ( Saint Peter's Wolf , LJ 5/15/91; Sleepwalker , LJ 2/15/91) have built an audience. Recommended for horror collections.
- Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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