Bone Music (The Burning Girl, 1) - Hardcover

Christopher Rice is the recipient of the Lambda Literary Award and is the New York Times bestselling author of A Density of Souls and the Bram Stoker Award finalists The Heavens Rise and The Vines. He is the head writer and an executive producer of The Vampire Chronicles, a television show based on the bestselling novels by his mother, Anne Rice. Together they penned Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra. With his best friend, New York Times bestselling novelist Eric Shaw Quinn, Christopher hosts the YouTube channel The Dinner Party Show with Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn (#TDPS). He lives in West Hollywood, California. Visit him at www.christopherricebooks.com.

There’s a lot of plot crammed into this series launch. When Charlotte was a baby, her mother was killed by a serial killer couple, who took Charlotte in until their capture seven years later. Now a young woman, Charlotte lives alone in the Arizona desert and trusts few people, including her therapist. When the drug he gives her for her anxiety turns out to be not quite what she expected, her carefully cloistered life falls apart quickly and puts her in the path of a serial killer. Though many of the topics seem extremely gory, most of the violence is psychological and largely off the page. Suspension of disbelief is required in this hybrid thriller/science fiction novel, but it is not hard to imagine it being turned into a high-budget action movie. The combination of Firestarter, The Silence of the Lambs, and the Elizabeth Smart story finally gels at the conclusion, while setting the stage for more. VERDICT: This could be a secondary choice for fans of Stephen King or thriller series or for readers who don’t mind suspense laced with a hint of science fiction. —Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library