The Raptor & the Wren

November 13, 2017
Wendig is in top form for his fifth horror-thriller (after 2017’s Thunderbird) featuring sharp-edged psychic Miriam Black, who has the power to learn how and when people will die. Miriam has discovered a new ability: she can control birds with her mind. It’s a neat trick, and one that will come in handy in the days ahead while she helps former FBI agent Thomas Grosky track down a killer who looks just like her and is a blast from her very messy past. Miriam’s search takes her into the darkest, most vicious depths of her talents, and back into the arms of former lover Louis Darling, whose eventual death Miriam has already glimpsed. She knows fighting her destiny is a losing proposition, but she tries anyway, all while dodging a horrifying entity that wants to annihilate her. Wendig expertly splashes Miriam’s considerable emotional pain across the page, never sparing her the price of her gut-wrenching circumstances, and closes with a shocking twist that is a true game-changer.

January 1, 2018

With just a touch, Miriam Black can tell when anyone will die. This knowledge haunts her as she tries to alter the course of her life and make amends for some of the wrongs in her past. One of these wrongs to make right is Wren, a young girl who seems to have followed in Miriam's killer footsteps. To save Wren, Miriam must confront old decisions and choices, including one who does not seem to stay dead. With a dark story line and an even darker protagonist, this vivid adventure takes readers on an emotional, violent ride. VERDICT The fifth book in the series (after Thunderbird) drives further down the road into Miriam Black's life: the trauma, the fears, and the forgiveness. It will please fans of Joe Hill and Joe Abercrombie.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., South Deerfield

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