Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts

March 2, 2009
When three women, friends since their tumultuous youth, find their lives unraveling, they are assisted by a mysterious stranger who arrives in their respective lives at just the right time. But who is he, where did he come from, and what exactly are his intentions? Emily Durante delivers a solid reading that features three separate and well-defined female performances that lend a realistic underpinning to an otherwise otherworldly story. Durante’s only flaw is that as good as the three protagonists are, her renditions of supporting characters are at times clichéd and obvious. A Ballantine hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 27).

October 27, 2008
After summoning a lover through a ritual part witchcraft, part Santeria, at the start of Benedict’s spellbinding second novel (after Isabella Moon
), three 13-year-old Lolitas—Roxanne, Del and Alice—believe that their new teacher at Cincinnati’s Our Lady of the Hills school, is the angel sent to deflower them. Roxanne successfully schemes to seduce Cuban-born Father Romero, who suffers terrible guilt as a result. When Alice and Del each falsely accuse Romero of acting inappropriately toward them, Romero is defrocked and loses his job. Seventeen years later, Romero returns to town with Varick, a demon disguised as a man, to punish the now adult schoolgirls. All become entangled in an unholy web of destruction that threatens innocent lives. While the underage sex may make some readers uncomfortable, this sad, erotically charged update of a classic horror theme offers a cautionary moral: pacts with the devil seldom result in happiness.