Horns

January 25, 2010
In bestseller Hill’s compulsively readable supernatural thriller, his second after Heart-Shaped Box
, dissolute Ignatius Perrish wakes up one morning to find a pair of satanic horns sprouting from his forehead. To the residents of Gideon, N.H., this grotesque disfigurement only confirms their suspicions that Ig raped and murdered his girlfriend, Merrin Williams, a crime for which he was held but soon released for lack of evidence. Ig is also now privy to the deepest, and often darkest, private thoughts of anyone he touches. Once Ig discovers through this uncanny sensitivity the true killer’s identity, he schemes to reveal the culprit’s guilt through natural means. Toggling between past and present, and incidents that range from the supernaturally surreal to the brutally realistic, Hill spins a story that’s both morbidly amusing and emotionally resonant. The explanations for Ig’s weird travails won’t satisfy every reader, but few will dispute that Hill has negotiated the sophomore slump. 6-city author tour.

Ignatius Perrish's life has been in ruins since he was accused of murdering his girlfriend. Then he wakes up one morning to find he's sprouted a pair of horns and that, as a result, those he encounters cannot lie to him as they tell him their secrets. Fred Berman's nuanced narration creates the feeling that there's nothing all that unusual about what's happening to Ig. Berman constructs an atmosphere in which intense interaction between the characters and the depth of their emotions accentuate the misunderstandings that underlie the intricate plot. He manages the pace to enhance the suspense, establish quiet moments of introspection, and in sum, make this a hard book to turn off. J.E.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine