Drought

May 18, 2015
Veteran horror writer Masterton (Forest Ghost) exhumes a retrograde jumble of action-movie clichés in this uninspiring near-future parable, set in drought-stricken San Bernardino, Calif. Ex-Marine Martin Makepeace is a social worker contending with PTSD and a broken marriage. When corrupt governor Halford Smiley begins exploiting the water shortage to "cull" the city's poor, the ensuing anarchyâincluding the framing of Martin's son for rape and murderârequires Martin to reunite his family and flee to a secret lake known only to the last descendants of the Serrano Indians, who willingly cede this inheritance to the very white Martin for not much reason at all. False starts and a protracted denouement do the novel's pacing no favors, and neither does Masterton's clunky prose ("She raised her hand toward Martin in an undulating motion, as if she were trying to demonstrate to him how dolphin swim"). The combination of over-the-top, often grossly sexual violence with a flatly stereotyped cast of heroes, victims, and villains slows the reading experience to a distasteful slog. Agent: Camilla Shestopal, Peters Fraser & Dunlops.

October 1, 2014
In San Bernardino, California, Martin Makepeace, a social worker, is concerned when representatives of the municipality tell him that a serious water shortage has led them to implement rotational hiatuses in service. This doesn't sit well with Martin, whose client families are already in a desperate situation due to an ongoing heat wave, but he's soon distracted by a rather more personal problem: his son is arrested for murder. How that situation impacts Martin's professional life and, in turn, the lives of the families he's responsible for is the meat of this latest novel from the prolific Masterton. It's a story of desperation, of political corruption and violence, and what makes it work so well is that Martin, with a son in jeopardy and a daughter who's seriously ill, is just as desperate as the people he's trying to protect. As society around him appears to be dissolving, we wonder how long Martin can maintain his own control before he, too, explodes. Another captivating novel from an author who seems to be able to turn nearly any idea into a compelling story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)