Bring Me Children [Hardcover]

Prominent TV anchorman John Lyon breaks down on camera after discussing the escalating rate of violence against children. Later, an African American woman exhorts Lyon to seek out Mason Quindell, a West Virginia doctor and "monster"; then the woman throws herself in front of an oncoming taxi. So begins a convoluted tale of malevolence by the author of Lie to Me --a story that frequently threatens to bog down in its own excesses. Traveling to West Virginia, Lyon encounters the dead woman's granddaughter, who aids him in uncovering the sinister goings-on chez Quindell. Encountering voodoo, barbaric guard dogs and a dwarf with a severely limited vocabulary, readers may feel that Martin has tossed a few too many bizarre ingredients into his grisly goulash. Moreover, Lyon's sexual escapades seem gratuitous, especially in their violence, and the author's attempts at humanizing his protagonist merely decelerate the plot. And though Quindell fascinates as he repels, he bears a striking resemblance to Thomas Harris's archfiend, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Aficionados of this genre, however, may forgive all upon reaching the finale--a Grand Guignol affair which introduces Mr. Gigli, a wiry, particularly sinister torturer extraordinaire. 50,000 first printing; BOMC featured alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Following in the bloody footsteps of his last thriller, Lie to Me ( LJ 6/1/90), Martin has again created a grisly work that is definitely not for the faint of heart. Network newscaster John Lyon sets out to expose the criminal doings of West Virginia doctor Mason Quinndell, who has been accused of murdering 18 babies. During his quest, Lyon encounters voodoo, a hermit dwarf with man-eating dogs, a comatose woman in a coffin, and the sadistic doctor, who has recently been blinded. With the help of an ex-prostitute and a grossly obese, corrupt deputy, the sightless doctor (who gets his jollies from slowly dismembering vagrants with a spoon--yes, a spoon--and other torture devices) tries to stop Lyon's investigation. Luridly fascinating and bargain-priced, this will provide a cheap thrill for Martin's fans. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/92.
- Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, Ind.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Martin follows his striking Lie to Me (1990) with a horrific West Virginia gothic about a flipped-out TV anchorman's investigation of a physician with a special interest in babies. After he bursts into tears on the air over a story about child abuse, cold-fish newscaster John Lyon (``his Lordship'') is eased into a leave of absence given sudden direction by wizened black nurse Claire Cept: moments before she jumps in front of a taxi, Claire sticks him with a box of evidence against suave, blind Dr. Mason Quinndell--a man who raped her 14-year-old granddaughter and taunted her, years later, with stories of all the children he'd murdered. On arriving in Hameln, Lyon's greeted by a cast of grotesques ranging from Randolph Welby, a puzzled dwarf who's been rescuing Quinndell's victims and hiding them in a cave until they die, to a disappearing corpse in a coffin, who turns out to be Claire's living and very determined granddaughter, and who insists he go up against Quinndell and a scary crew of accomplices including: Mary Aurora, an inoffensive prostitute posing as Quinndell's nurse until her indentured year ends in a fat payoff and an introduction to her own long-since-adopted daughter; Carl, a brainless, obese sheriff's deputy equally devoted to Quinndell; and Mr. Spoon and Mr. Gigli, Quinndell's favorite torture toys, which will come out into the open for a spectacularly gruesome Fourth of July climax. As before, grisly tableaux--set with the kind of poetic sensitivity that makes them even more shocking--unerringly reflect psychosocial horrors beneath: there's nothing gratuitous in Martin's baroque encounter with evil. Strong stuff, no matter how you look at it. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

John Lyon, a veteran but emotionally unstable newscaster, is drawn into a sinister web of evil in the heart of Appalachia when he investigates a woman's bizarre story about a West Virginia doctor who has been killing babies. 50,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo. BOMC Feat.