Bad Signs

January 4, 2016
This unpleasant thriller shows British author Ellory (A Quiet Belief in Angels) at far from his best. In California in 1952, when Elliott “Digger” Danziger is six and his half-brother, Clarence “Clay” Luckman, is five, Clay’s drunken, enraged father breaks their mother’s neck with a baseball bat in front of them before running off forever. In their early teens, Digger and Clay end up in a juvenile correctional facility in Hesperia, Calif., where in 1964 they’re taken hostage by a death row inmate, Earl Sheridan. After breaking out, Sheridan takes the boys on a murderous rampage, which triggers a massive manhunt. Horrified by Sheridan’s violence, Clay must find a way to stay alive. Innocent bystander after innocent bystander is slaughtered, and whatever sympathy Digger garnered as a result of his traumatic childhood is quickly dissipated. Readers should be prepared for gratuitous bloodshed, heavy-handed foreshadowing, and baroque prose (“Clay knew then that his brother was more than likely lost, and again he questioned the woof and warp of all things”). Agent: Euan Thorneycroft, A.M. Heath (U.K.).

January 15, 2016
Is it truly possible to be born under a bad sign? The half brothers in Ellory's (Ghostheart, 2015, etc.) latest novel think so, and their attempts to shake their destiny are the subject of a haunting thriller set in the early 1960s. The trials of Digger Danziger and his sibling, the ironically surnamed Clay Luckman, begin when their mother is murdered by Clay's impulsive father. Both come of age in abusive juvenile prisons; their only escape comes when Earl Sheridan, a psychopathic killer bound for execution, breaks out of jail and takes them both hostage. Sheridan manages another string of grisly killings before he's caught, and Clay escapes just before the law catches up. Taking his revenge for the escape, the dying Sheridan convinces authorities that Clay was responsible for the murders. After his death, Sheridan influences the brothers in opposite ways: Digger emulates him and becomes an even more brutal killer. Clay continues his escape run with Bailey, a wise-beyond-her-years teenage girl who was orphaned in one of Sheridan's rampages. He doesn't know he's being pursued by the authorities, who believe Digger is dead and Clay is the criminal. The story has enough depth to work on a few levels: as an existential look at the nature of fate or as a gripping story in its own right. And it wouldn't be a stretch to see the caring Clay and the violent Digger as symbols of America's divided psyche at this point in its history.

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Starred review from January 1, 2016
After witnessing the murder of their mother, half-brothers Elliott Danziger and Clarence Luckman are placed in state institutions that do little more than warehouse orphans and juvenile offenders. Elliott, who christened himself Digger as a little boy, renames Clarence Clay, hoping to make his younger brother's life a bit easier. He also defends Clay frequently. The boys are inseparable, even though very different. Digger is impetuous; Clay is more insightful. But their lives are changed forever when a convicted murderer being delivered for execution escapes, takes them hostage, and begins a violent road trip from California to Texas. Clay simply prepares to die, but Digger seems to soak up the killer's insane rants. Clay, who once feared for his brother, becomes afraid of him. Ellory, an Englishman who regularly brings vivid life to diverse American characters, locales, and eras (Ghostheart, 2015), may be drawing on some of his own experience here. Orphaned as a boy, he was sent to boarding school by his grandmother. Ellory brilliantly renders Clay's sense of loss, loneliness, and fearbut also his resolute hope for salvation. Pair this striking mix of character study and thriller with John Hart's similarly gripping Iron House (2011).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)