The Forbidden

March 31, 2014
Demonic possession drives the plot of this polished supernatural thriller from Tallis (The Sleep Room). In 1872, Dr. Paul Clément accepts a position with a missionary hospital on the island of Saint-Sébastian in the French Antilles, only to have a terrifying encounter with an apparent zombie. A medical colleague provides a rational explanation for the apparition, but Clément is still unsettled by the warning from the island bokor (sorcerer) not to reveal to anyone what he witnessed. On returning to Paris, Clément begins working with electricity to revive the dead. When he learns that some of the patients who survived the procedure report visions of the afterlife, Clément subjects himself to the same treatment. His experience is anything but inspirational, and on resuming consciousness, he gradually realizes that he did not return to the waking world alone. Tallis knows how to elicit fear in his readers, with first-rate prose and atmospherics. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.)

April 1, 2014

Tallis (Vienna Twilight) channels The Exorcist in his latest historical stand-alone, a fast-paced tale that follows a young French doctor's exploration of the line between life and death. Witnessing the ritualistic murder of a "zombie" on the island of Saint Sebastien in the French Antilles, Dr. Paul Clement returns to Paris with a fevered interest in the nervous system and electrical resuscitation. After hearing about the visions of light and happiness some dying patients have experienced before revival, Clement allows his own heart to be stopped and then reanimated in the name of scientific pursuit. What follows are scenes right out of Dante's Inferno, and Clement finds himself pushed to the brink to save those he cares for. VERDICT Short-listed for both the Edgar and Dagger Awards, Tallis knows how to build suspense. By layering in real-life doctors and descriptions of the experiments they carried out in 19th-century France, he builds a credible universe that makes the supernatural elements all the more shocking. There are genuinely creepy moments, and the horror show of Christian mythology isn't for the squeamish. The plot-driven chills will attract readers who don't mind being kept up late.--Liza Oldham, Beverly, MA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2014
We're in Paris, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Dr. Paul Cl'ment's interests in the techniques of human resuscitationinterests that started growing when, working at a mission hospital in the French Antilles, he witnessed the shocking death of a young man who appeared to have been turned into a zombiehave taken over his life, leading him to take the biggest risk a man can take: to bring himself back from death so he can see what those who have been resuscitated have experienced. What he discovers, though, is a lot more terrifying than even he had expected. Written in a lightly ornamented style to match its Victorian setting, this is a full-on horror story that grabs us pretty much from the first paragraph and doesn't let go until it's good and ready to. For fans of gothic horror, a tasty treat.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)