The Return

Old salts will recognize this as a "sea story" from astronaut Buzz Aldrin, himself a mariner as famous as Christopher Columbus. Fiction-lovers will marvel at Aldrin's ability to tell a great sci-fi tale. (And they will despair that it portrays no carnal activity.) Scott Brick's voice is clear and distinct; his "yuppoid" tone shows an ability to add color and vitality to text. However, he does little with his expression to help the reader overcome the confusion created by having Scott, Nick, and Thalia intermittently narrating their own stories within the novel structure. Why not at least a little falsetto for Thalia? J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Starred review from December 2, 2019
The reunion of a missing, presumed dead woman and her three best friends leads to hair-raising horror and pure entertainment in Harrison’s compulsively readable debut. When Julie disappears, Elise is the only one among her friends who refuses to accept that she’s most likely dead. Elise is proved right when Julie returns two years later, claiming to have no memory of the time since she vanished. Overjoyed, their other two best friends, Mae and Molly, organize a trip to upstate New York to reconnect. When the friends arrive at an isolated, extravagant hotel, they’re disturbed to find Julie a changed woman. Previously a vehement vegetarian, she now craves meat, and her body seems to be deteriorating before their eyes, breaking teeth and losing eyelashes. Chalking up her erratic behavior to trauma, Elise and the others try to make the best of their weekend, but as past frictions flare up between the old friends, the eerily empty hotel grows more oppressive the longer they stay. Mounting dread builds to a blood-soaked climax as the truth of Julie’s disappearance is revealed. The tension and nuance of Harrison’s complicated female friendships add depth to an already delicious, chilling debut. Agent: Lucy Carson, the Friedrich Agency.