The Burning Island

October 22, 2018
Thriller Award finalist Young’s haunted third thriller featuring Charlotte “Charlie” Cates (after 2017’s The Shimmering Road) finds the freelance journalist reeling from the media frenzy following her partner’s unwelcome disclosure that clues from dreams are what helped her rescue a missing child—the most recent of several. Charlie can’t wait to ditch the news vans outside their home in Tucson, Ariz., for a working Hawaiian getaway. But once in the Big Island’s remote Kalo Valley, she discovers that she’s only swapped one firestorm for another when she learns that the subject her sly, publicity conscious editor has suggested she profile, Dr. Victor Nakagawa, is not only a prominent volcanologist and triathlete but also the father of 16-year-old Lise, who disappeared six weeks earlier. And though most members of the family seem convinced the popular but rebellious teen simply ran away, Charlie’s alarming dreams scream otherwise. What she doesn’t see coming—until it may be too late—is the danger to herself. Brace for a hair-raising cliff dive into waters dark and deep. Agent: Esmond Harmsworth, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth.

November 15, 2018
A psychic searches for a missing teenager on the Big Island of Hawaii in the final volume of a trilogy (The Shimmering Road, 2017, etc.).Readers expecting a ripped-from-the-headlines account of Kilauea's eruptions may be disappointed, though Volcanoes National Park is the setting for this novel's deepest dives, literally if not thematically. Our heroine, psychic sleuth Charlie, needs to escape the media feeding frenzy surrounding her latest clairvoyance-assisted rescue of a missing child. A "Girls' Week" vacation in Hawaii with best friend Rae seems just the ticket. However, the trip immediately draws Charlie into another missing person case, that of Lise Nakagawa, 16-year-old daughter of Victor Nakagawa, a volcanologist at the park. In lucid dreams, Charlie sees through the eyes of a menacing male who approaches Lise as she lies vulnerable on a hammock. (This is unusual for Charlie, since she usually inhabits the victim.) Ostensibly interviewing Victor for a travel magazine, Charlie questions him about Lise and why he seems so unperturbed by her absence. Lise and her identical twin sister, Jocelyn, attend a progressive private school, and though Jocelyn is studious and Stanford-bound, Lise is a wild child forever getting in trouble. The desultory police investigation has targeted Elijah, Lise's boyfriend, with whom she broke up just before her disappearance. Elijah is the middle son of Naomi Yoon, who is rumored to be Victor's lover. The Yoons appear to be the last remnants of an oppressive cult. In a comedic set piece, the two middle-aged "girls" go undercover with Lise's slacker friends, Brayden and Frankie, whose pidgin dialect is faithfully if somewhat questionably reproduced. Late in the game we learn that for the Nakagawas and the Yoons, dysfunction is the best-case scenario. Since Young's overall tone is lighthearted, such unforeshadowed dark turns may give readers whiplash. Insights into Hawaiian culture and class divides, ample volcano lore, and Charlie's wry voice keep us reading, but in the end we hope for a less uneven follow-up.Though this book is the end of a trilogy, there's every indication its heroine will be back.

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December 1, 2018

Young (The Gates of Evangeline; The Shimmering Road) returns with more adventures of psychic journalist Charlie Cates. This third novel opens with an exciting search in Tucson's Sabino Canyon for a missing boy. When the resultant public attention becomes overwhelming, Charlie joins girlfriend Rae in Hawaii for a combination vacation and article research trip. She plans to write about volcano scientist and Ironman competitor Dr. Victor Nakagawa. But relaxing in paradise takes an immediate backseat as Charlie has a disturbing vision on her first evening in the Kalo Valley. Confusing flashes of twisted feelings and thoughts that seem to belong to someone else increasingly torment Charlie as she and Rae struggle to untangle the mystery of a missing teen. Intriguing characters and unanswered questions keep the story, which can easily be read as a stand-alone, moving at an engaging pace that sustains readers' attention. VERDICT Those looking for solid suspense stories, especially those with psychic or supernatural elements, will enjoy this novel. [See Prepub Alert, 7/2/18.]--Crystal Renfro, Kennesaw State Univ., Marietta, GA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2018
Journalist Charlotte Charlie Cates is outed for her psychic gifts after she and her fianc�, Noah, find a missing 12-year-old boy in an Arizona desert. Under persistent questioning from the sheriff's department, Noah tells the truth?that the missing boy appeared to Charlie in her dreams?and, before she knows it, she's the story. To escape media attention?and with Noah's encouragement?she and her bestie, Rae Shapiro, expand their annual Girls' Weekend into Girls' Week, this time in Hawaii, where Charlie's editor suggests she write a piece about prominent volcanologist Dr. Victor Nakagawa. But soon after arriving at a remote B&B in Kalo Valley, she learns that her editor has set her up: Lise, one of Nakagawa's identical 16-year-old twin daughters, has been missing for six weeks, and Charlie is already seeing the girl in her dreams. Time intended for relaxation instead involves apprehension, suspicion, and danger, as Charlie uncovers dark sides of paradise. In this final volume of the Charlie Cates trilogy, Young engagingly weaves Hawaiian mythology, history, and sociology into a novel of suspense in a vividly portrayed setting, whetting the appetite for more of this psychic protagonist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)