Crime Fiction, or Science Fiction? Eric Rickstad's REMOTE: THE FIVE (The Remote Series Book 2)

It's rare that a publisher and author can dance their calendars so well that book 2 in a series is published before you've lost the stinging memories of book 1 -- but Eric Rickstad and Blackstone Publishing have made it work, just in time for some properly creepy summer reading.

Book 1 in the series, called Remote: The Six, released on April 8; this week, book 2, REMOTE: THE FIVE, is available. Although it's an author's job to give enough scaffolding so you can jump into a later book in a series and not feel lost, the double premises behind Rickstad's plotting mean you'll appreciate this new volume more if you've read the first one; I'll paste that review below, since the publication where it appeared abruptly vanished this spring (alas).

Premise 1: Serial killings of entire families are taking place, with FBI Special Agent Lukas Stark assigned to identify the murderer and stop him. Means and opportunity aren't hard to pull together, but motive depends on this next part --

Premise 2: Gilles Garnier, also known as X, is one of six people raised with a new-to-humans ability: They can "remote view," that is, see and hear what's happening in some other location. The killings are his part of his psychotic effort to find or create other remote viewers.

 Hold on -- before you discard the notion as too far from reality, bear in mind that the author's "discussion topics" from the first book reveal that he's based this on a CIA research program, historically real. He's clearly spent major effort on the FBI procedures involved in Agent Stark's efforts, too. In effect, Rickstad is shifting a dark crime novel just a bit further along into what the future could bring -- so in that sense, park this book in the "dystopian" genre, too. And who isn't grimly interested in dystopian fiction just now, in an effort to understand what's going on in our scary global situations??

As REMOTE: THE FIVE opens, it seems another of the remote viewers, S, is turning to murder: 

This woman, suspected of the murders of two MIT researchers in the field of bioengineering and genome modification, had the same strange scar on the back of her neck that Garnier and Q had. This woman whom Garnier suspected of being manipulated by the program, as was Q, into murdering a list of individuals in the hope of maintaining or strengthening their fading remote-viewing abilities. Of course, it might really have been only a test by the program to see how far the two would go to maintain their ability—to determine how strong their addiction to that power really was. 

There's that dystopian note: "addiction to power."

Stark and Garnier head in separate directions, each pursuing a persistent hunch about the ongoing murders. The FBI agent has his own twist: He seems unable to let go of pursing the case, even when his own wife and small child are in enormous danger. And Garnier appears to be dying. So, will the case be solved before Garnier can't even walk and wake, or before Stark carries his own trauma from childhood into another generation?

If you like all threads neatly tidied by the end of a book, don't try this one -- there are quite a few strands left dangling at the end, and there's little resolution of the threats that seem only to deepen. But for those hooked on the estrangement and bitterness of noir (or related dystopia), this is a prime candidate for book of the summer. Of course, the sequence of titles and the rough-edged ending to REMOTE: THE FIVE make it clear there are more books ahead in the series, so it's understandable that threads dangle. Rickstad has left more of them unresolved than is usual, so book 3 will need to carry a lot of power.

Let's see how soon the next book will come to the shelves!

 

BOOK 1 review, originally published in the New York Journal of Books:

Remote: The Six, The Remote Series Book 1 by Eric Rickstad 

Kudos to Blackstone for opting to release both of the first two books in Eric Rickstad’s new Remote Series within the same year: book 1 now, and book 2 in July. The suspense raised by this new thriller, Remote: The Six, could otherwise be close to unbearable—because Rickstad is a master of suspense and quickly ramps up both tension and personal threat for FBI Special Agent Lukas Stark. On the road, constantly falling behind the attacks of a brutal serial killer, Stark is all too aware that this man is deliberately assaulting families. Like his own, his wife and eight-year-old son, whom he hasn’t seen in literally months, thanks to his job.

 

Stark appears to be mostly a lone hunter, with support from forensic teams wherever he lands to assess the latest deaths. “The FBI had not been brought in until the third murdered family … made it clear through MO—victims bound to chairs, wife’s throat cut, father and children bludgeoned—that there was likely a single killer working across state lines.” So he’s doing his own assessments, asking creative questions, probing behavioral and psychological patterns. Rickstad doesn’t hold back on the twists from the start: Just a few pages in, Stark reflects that he knows “all too well the bloody fingerprint a father’s violence left on a son’s soul.”

 

So in many ways, Stark’s solo hunting for the serial killer is a perfect fit for his own damaged self. Alas, he’s got less than one chapter of the book to hunt that way, as his superior, an FBI Special Agent in Charge, arrives without warning on the latest crime scene, with a very strange civilian in tow. Stark is expected to take on as a partner this peculiar and intrusive man, who reminds him of “a secretary bird, which takes flight only when pressed by imminent danger.”

 

Yet this is also the moment when Rickstad’s ground-shaking crime novel crosses over into speculative fiction (what used to be only called sci fi), because Gilles Garnier has his own way of searching for the perpetrator: something called remote viewing, which lets him see what someone else is looking at.

 

Stark’s very unhappy with the notion, which reminds him of course of all the fraudulent or at best useless psychics he’s already seen in action. Rickstad then cleverly braids together several long processes: of Stark revealing only to himself his own internal damage, of the frustrations of the serial killer, and of Gilles Garnier confessing what he’s actually doing, and how he’s gained the capacity to do it. (For those who hate crawling inside the minds of gruesome killers and their terrified victims, this book’s a good thriller for you, because those aspects don’t take up a lot of the narrative.) The pacing is impressive, the dialogue and twists highly satisfying, and by the time Stark himself is unraveling, it’s all too clear why.

 

Equally intriguing is Stark’s own theory of the killer, which involves a biochemical form of addiction to arousal. He’s aware that the theory makes him an outsider, and even Gilles Garnier agrees it will put off the other professionals: “Addiction implies a lack of free will, of personal responsibility.” But might this be the case anyway?

 

This is indeed book 1, so there are a couple of scary dangling threads at the end. (Not long to wait until they’re back in play, with July 8 the predicted release date for book 2, Remote: The Five.) But Rickstad also offers some startling information in his promotional “discussion topics,” which include the presence of historically real serial killers in his home state, and a CIA research program, also historically real, on remote viewing. Maybe the sci-fi side of the book is actually a view into something scary and very possible, after all.

 

 

Intense and Chilling Thriller Set in Vermont, I AM NOT WHO YOU THINK I AM by Eric Rickstad

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“When Wayland becomes convinced that he’s witnessed some sleight of hand—that the death he witnessed was not his father’s but someone else’s—his passionate defense of the theory is based on the mysterious message he’d found.”

EricRickstad’s latest Vermont thriller presents a psychological mystery with stunning twists—perfectly paced and carefully constructed so that each startling new direction fits perfectly with what’s gone before, yet feels utterly unpredictable. That’s the ideal balance for this can’t-put-it-down novel crammed with sinister foreboding and family trauma.

I Am Not Who You Think I Am is titled with the words that eight-year-old Wayland Maynard discovers, in his father’s handwriting after he sees his father kill himself. Or is that what he’s actually seen? With age and maturity come questioning, and soon Wayland has a set of alternatives he’s desperate to prove and explain.

A child’s view provides an ultimately unreliable narrator, and at first, Wayland’s first-person narrative reveals the affection between his parents, and a possible weakness in his father. “I have pieced together enough to know that what happened on the day of the Incident was not done because he was a bad man. A bad father. It was done because … well, we’ll get to that. This isn’t some magic trick where the secret machinations are kept hidden. No. This is all about the reveal. The truth.”

But which parts of the child’s memories are relevant truths? Is it the tall threatening man who visited his father’s barber shop? “My father’s shears nicked my ear. I yelped. Blood trickled from my notched flesh. My father didn’t notice. His eyes were locked on the figure in the doorway. Dead leaves danced around the stranger’s feet. I felt a chill from the air that carried the tang of autumnal decay.”

Though Rickstad declares this novel to be a new direction for him, the vivid portrayal of place and threat will be familiar to those who’ve read his other books, like The Silent Girls. The tale quickly complicates as Wayland begins to share his investigation with Juliette, who sets his adolescent hormones and perceptions spinning and who is at least as strange and prone to vanishing as his family. When Wayland becomes convinced that he’s witnessed some sleight of hand—that the death he witnessed was not his father’s but someone else’s—his passionate defense of the theory is based on the mysterious message he’d found. And he poses the most critical issue: “Q: If it wasn’t your father, where is your father now? A: I don’t know. But I’m going to find out. Find out what they did to him.”

Some of the answers seem to be in the hands of the town’s most wealthy and reclusive citizens, and Wayland places himself in extreme danger, trying to discover the secrets he knows they are keeping from him. When the final twist arrive, it’s not just Wayland who will be shocked—and the mood of love mingled with deception never lets up for a moment.

Rickstad makes it clear that it took both The Story Factory and the unusual tilt of Blackstone Books to allow him to swerve into this powerful diversion of narrative and suspended disbelief. Three more books are promised. Which should be, in fact, as good a return on investment as young Wayland will get for his desperate investigation.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Eric Rickstad's New Crime Fiction (Vermont Suspense & Gothic) WHAT REMAINS OF HER

[Originally published in the New York Journal of Books]

Young professor Jonah Baum teaches transcendental poetry and Gothic literature at a small Vermont college. But nothing in his profession could prepare him for the November 1987 afternoon when, faced with an empty home and missing wife and daughter, he’d step into a horror narrative of his own.

With plenty of reason, and Jonah’s own doubts and confusion buttressing their assumptions, the police almost immediately began grilling him as the possible reason his family is missing. Did he chase them away? Or did he do something horrible to them? His alcohol-soggy mind can’t be fully certain of what’s going on and what he’s done.

Desperate for reassurance, and of course for his family, Jonah calls his best friend Maurice Welch, a local sheriff, for help finding Rebecca and Sally. To his shock, Maurice sees him as a possible suspect, keeps grilling him, pushing at details that Jonah’s twisted a bit to not look like what he really is—a man who’s afraid of his own incapacity, afraid of being left, afraid of any moment without the cushion of a drink and a white lie.

Those who’ve read Rickstad’s earlier books (Lie in Wait, The Silent Girls) know there will be darkness ahead. Some of it comes directly from Jonah’s weak-minded efforts to hide his inner culpability; some of it’s from Maurice’s determination to push, despite their friendship. And some of it is the dark, bloody illness of abuse and possible death pounding at the scene, forceful as a New England winter storm:

‘I hunted as a kid.’ Jonah nodded to Maurice. ‘He can attest to that.’

Maurice nodded, face grim.

‘And you just decided to take it up again on a whim?’ the detective said.

‘I don’t do much on whims,’ Jonah said.

‘Hmmm,’ the detective said.

Jonah’s every word, every action, seemed a mark against him. All of it suspicious. One of a thousand cuts. ‘I felt that old urge, and, frankly, free meat in the freezer never hurts with the cost of groceries these days.’

‘So you have money troubles?’

‘I wouldn’t say that.’

The detective scribbled a note. ‘And the head wound?’ He tapped his pen against his own forehead.

‘As I told Maurice, I got up too fast, lost my balance, and hit my head.’

‘And the dented wall in your daughter’s bedroom?’

 All the small things of life in an imperfect marriage, a restless career, line up to condemn Jonah. Maurice is unable to help—he’s there as the law more than as a best friend, it seems.

The real truth of what’s happened to Rebecca and Sally won’t be simple to find. WHAT REMAINS OF HER jumps forward into the adult life of little Sally’s used-to-be best friend, Lucinda Welch, the sheriff’s daughter. The small girls hadn’t understood much about their often scary world at the time of Sally’s disappearance, and Lucinda’s carrying a haunted burden of knowledge she couldn’t understand as a child, but recognized as full of threat.

Despite Rickstad’s reliance on ghostly tremors of unspoken, unrecognized evidence, this crime novel’s shattering conclusion arrives relentlessly and depends squarely on the reality of the long-lived circle of friends. Tightly plotted, jammed with frightening scenes of threat and loss, the book may haunt readers especially with the possibilities that what happens here might transfer to real life.

Which is, of course, the whole point of Gothic horror, embedded in crime fiction: to remind us of the fear and evil we half are drawn toward, half turn away from. Rickstad’s balance of this dark side with the counterpoint of courage and determination brought by now-adult Lucinda declares that truth may emerge, justice be measured out. Maybe.

Even this slim chance of righting the balance makes WHAT REMAINS OF HER a fiercely good read. Add it to the shelf of noir, along with Karin Fossum’s Scandinavian crime fiction, Stuart Neville’s violence-haunted Irish families, and Karin Slaughter’s twists on law enforcement and pursuit.

As always, for Rickstad’s Vermont books, don’t count on the geography matching the real Green Mountain state. Thank goodness, the crime’s won’t match, either—at least, not for today.

(Published by William Morrow.)

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

The Horror of Bullying, Violent Crime, in a Page-Turner from Eric Rickstad, THE NAMES OF DEAD GIRLS

As I write this, the final episode of a serial drama on the Unabomber, a mail-using terrorist whose bombs murdered innocent unconnected people over two decades, has just aired. It's clear that there are humans -- shudder -- who will use any means to exert power over others, whether to make a point or to watch the effects of threat, torture, and death on others. Crime fiction, I think, helps us to box this into a "story" so that we can set the knowledge aside and go on with our lives.

Into this comes this week's hot release, THE NAMES OF DEAD GIRLS, from Eric Rickstad. This award-winning author who lives in Vermont mines the forms of terror that can occur in small rural communities, weaving them across the lives of people who care deeply about keeping each other safe ... in this case, Detective Frank Rath, his colleague Detective Sonja Test, and Frank's niece, long his adopted daughter, Rachel. The release from prison of the murderer who killed Rachel's parents triggers a situation of danger and threat for Frank and Rachel, and only proof of the violent psychopath's continued crimes will gain any kind of peace of mind or safety for these valued members of their community.

Rickstad is a flawless storyteller and an expert at raising suspense through small images, sudden plot twists, and believable crises. In THE NAMES OF DEAD GIRLS another powerful thread is Rachel's now-adult awareness of what happened to her parents, as she obtains access to the file on their murders:

The profound and profane violence did not crush Rachel; the photo of her parents alive, beaming, coddling their swaddled baby between them, did. They were radiant. They were young. Scarcely older than Rachel. In their twenties.

Rachel forced herself to memorize the photos ... The images would never let her forget.

Macabre and slow revelations pile up for the characters that Rickstad paints so well. By the time the book's speeding toward its dark conclusion, there's no putting it down. Keep in mind, this is a sequel to The Silent Girls and the e-release Lie in Wait; also, a reminder for Vermont-familiar readers -- the place names are sort of random, not connected geographically with the actual named locations in Vermont, although heavily based on the Northeast Kingdom.

Don't miss the Author Note on this one -- because Rickstad reveals what started him on this track, with images I may never be able to forget, either.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

New From Eric Rickstad, Releasing Sept 1 -- as an E-Book!

It's a Brave New World in book publishing, and here's one more item of proof: HarperCollins is reversing the "accepted" publication routine, and issuing Eric Rickstad's new Vermont mystery as an e-book before the print version!

LIE IN WAIT is already available for pre-order, and will launch on September 1. A classic police investigation mystery with a few twists, it's set in the fictional town of Canaan (ignore any idea that this matches the real Canaan, Vermont -- it doesn't, as mentioned for his previous Gothic thriller The Silent Girls) and takes place in 2010, during the height of the "Take Back Vermont" campaign (this too is a slight twist of "real" history, as the campaign happened in 2000; here's a link to a Wikipedia explanation). Some naive visitors to the Green Mountain State at that time misunderstood the lawn signs with the phrase, thinking it referred to a tourism effort (as in, buy Vermont products and take them back home with you). Actually it was a very bitter time in Vermont community life, as factions wrestled over whether the law creating "civil unions" for same-sex couples was a courteous and appropriate recognition of an established family form, or blasphemous and disgusting enabling of a sexuality that many considered "wrong," or at least "abnormal."

In real life, although the time was contentious and led to many public spats (and tears), the effort to keep conversations civil won out, and eventually, nine years later, Vermont made possible same-sex marriage as a legal entity. Tourism and same-sex weddings changed the minds of some who'd opposed the new law; others became quieter in their dissent; and many rejoiced.

Rickstad's fictional Vermont, however, is a dangerous place for a lawyer defending a civil suit brought by two men who want their union legalized. And as LIE IN WAIT opens, we find the entire town of Canaan up in arms over The Case that attorney Jon Merryfield is representing. Soon the domestic scene of the Merryfield home is marred by a brutal murder of the babysitter -- and the action rapidly intensifies.

At the heart of the book is Sonja Test, a detective on the town police force (Vermont residents, here's your cue again to recall that this is fiction). Eager to solve the crime and ensure justice, she's stymied right away by her position as a newbie and as a town detective -- because the state police, in the person of senior detective Richard North, rightfully takes ownership of the case. Test is so new at her job that she trips over her own feet, antagonizing both North and the witnesses.

As Test approached, North averted his eyes to the cellar stairs. Test could tell from the creases carved in his face by his scowl that whatever was down in that cellar was nasty. She'd not worked a murder scene. They were few and far between in Canaan.

She prepared herself by taking a slow deep breath through her nose; a technique she employed when running half marathons.

Her fist homicide and she would work it -- or support it, rather -- alone.

"It's not pretty," North said to Test without saying hello or shaking her hand. Had he thought she'd think it would be pretty? Was he patronizing her? She was uncertain.

Sonja Test is someone easy to identify with. She's passionate about her job, wants to stake out her turf, longs to make a reputation as an effective detective. At the same time, she has two small children and a husband, none of whom are getting much attention as she repeatedly puts the investigation first. Risks to her kids arise; soon she's afraid her job's on the line, too.

Rickstad chooses to display the minds of several other people as the case goes along -- from the babysitter on the evening of her death, to three or four possible suspects, all of whom are linked in a crime from years ago that was never prosecuted. (Note: If you can't abide reading plots that involve sexual abuse, let this one pass.) And there's serious confusion for some of the townspeople, who confuse gay sex of adults, with the abuse of sexual power over children.

Test is a compelling character, so painfully human that her stumbles along the way are almost endearing. Her persistence and determination and willingness to risk being wrong add up to the capacity to get close to the solution of the crime. But as it becomes clear that someone is being framed, will Sonja Test be able to spot the real hand behind the evil actions taking place?

If I could change one thing about the way Rickstad wraps up this crime novel, it would be in terms of how Sonja Test puts together the facts at last; I like to see a plucky protagonist make worthwhile choices when it counts, and maybe this fictional investigator doesn't yet have the skills to pull off the final surge of detection. See what you think -- and whether you feel she's earned her way here.

What a treat to have this come out as an inexpensive e-book first -- if you have a device for reading an e-book, or are willing to use the software available to read it on your computer, it's an easy pick for a Vermont thriller. Purchase directly from the publisher with this link, or use other e-book routes that work for you.

Just remember -- it's fiction! (We Green Mountain folks want you to feel safe to come visit us!)

Vermont Gothic Thriller: THE SILENT GIRLS, Eric Rickstad

It's been a few years since Eric Rickstad's first book, Reap, garnered so much attention and introduced the Northeast Kingdom region of Vermont to a fresh set of readers. In THE SILENT GIRLS, Rickstad goes well beyond the ticking clock of suspense and the dangers of a thriller, to the very creepy aspects of a true Gothic. You know what I mean, if you've read Jennifer McMahon lately -- but subtract any chance of humor along the way.

A short first chapter, datelined Halloween, sixteen years earlier than the rest of the book, lays out a bloody and painful horror component at the start. But then THE SILENT GIRLS shifts apparent subgenres, becoming a classic police procedural, Frank Rath -- once a noted police detective in northern Vermont but working as a private investigator instead -- agrees to back up a local investigation into a missing teen. When Rath and his official colleagues find four more missing teens in the area over the past two years, the pattern hints at a serial killer. But the girls who are missing seem to have nothing in common: not body shape, grades, background. What could be the motive for their abductions? And is there a chance to save any of their lives? When one teen's body is found, the case takes on even more urgency.

Rath is a classic noir investigator, haunted by inner turmoil and guilt and a bad alcohol habit; his fellow investigators also show aspects that could make an employer uneasy, from anger to addiction of sorts. And what Rath has kept secret, especially from his adopted daughter, is erupting in unpredictable ways, thanks to an unexpected parole hearing for the killer who'd ended Rath's earlier career path.

Brace for dark, grim, and even horrific in this one -- an excellent interview with Rickstad (click here) tips a hat to the recent trends in Scandinavian crime writing, as well as to Stephen King. The book is smoothly written, tightly paced, with a taut plot that insists on quick reading. Clear the schedule (and keep the lights on).

A quick note to fellow Vermonters: Don't try to map the towns, roads, and counties that Rickstad lays out -- they're not where you'd expect. Pretend it's all new to you. Except, of course, for that grim stretch of late October and early November weather that's been called "locking time." That, and the cruelties of some Rickstad characters and plot twists, may feel familiar, after all.