A Vision of Fire

August 4, 2014
Actress Anderson of X-Files fame makes her fiction debut with this gripping, well-written thriller, coauthored with genre veteran Rovin (Vespers). Ben Moss, an interpreter at the United Nations, asks a friend, Manhattan psychiatrist Caitlin O’Hara, if she can figure out what’s bothering Maanik Pawar, the 16-year-old daughter of the Permanent Representative of India to the U.N. Maanik’s father, Ganak, narrowly survived an assassination attempt on a Manhattan street, and while the teenager, who witnessed the shooting, initially seemed okay, she has begun injuring herself, screaming, and speaking in gibberish. The crisis at home threatens to have global implications since it distracts Ganak from focusing on nuclear saber-rattling centered on Kashmir. Caitlin soon finds that Maanik is not the only person to display such symptoms. Fans of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child will find a lot to like. Agent: Doug Grad, Doug Grad Literary Agency.

September 15, 2014

During a period of tense negotiations at the UN, the Indian ambassador who is facilitating talks is shot at outside his daughter Maanik's school. The young girl, a witness to the assault though seemingly unhurt, soon exhibits bizarre and violent attacks of screaming and self-harm. The ambassador's translator calls in his friend and psychiatrist Caitlin O'Hara to help the girl, but she discovers that Maanik is not the only one to suffer these symptoms, which also involve visions of cataclysms and unseen forces. VERDICT Owing to award-winning actress Anderson's (The X-Files) celebrity, there will be interest in this title regardless of its literary merits; however, this sf thriller's first half does pack a lot of tension as Caitlin travels from New York to Haiti to Iran in pursuit of answers. The mystical elements, when they kick in later in the book, are further out there than any X-File episode, and the author leaves plenty of unanswered questions for future series volumes. [See Prepub Alert, 4/27/14; previewed in Eric Norton's sf/fantasy feature, "A Multiplicity of Realms," LJ 8/14; Simon451 is S. &. S.'s new sf imprint.--Ed.]

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