David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-monkey-s-paw"
Winter People
When I first started reading WINTER PEOPLE, I was reminded of PET SEMETERY by Stephen King, and “The Monkey’s Paw” the great short story, but I had a jones for a good ghost story, so I kept reading.
With only a few qualms I wasn’t disappointed. It takes author Jennifer McMahon a while to introduce her characters. The main one, I guess, is Sara Harrison Shea who wrote the journal so important to the other characters. She’s famous in West Hall, Vermont, as a murder victim who was skinned alive; her husband, Martin, a hard scrabble farmer, who committed suicide gets the blame.
The next character to enter stage center is Ruthie whose mother disappears. She’s left to take care of her sweet little sister, Fawn. They live in Sara’s old house and soon find some clues as to what may have happened to their mother Alice.
Katherine then enters the picture. Her husband Gary was a photographer and an antiquer who discovered parts of Sara’s journal and photographed it. Gary is killed in a car accident. Katherine discovers a picture of Gary with a woman with a long gray braid, which turns out to be Alice. So, have patience, our characters get together after a while.
Okay, now for the weird stuff. Sara has an aunt who may be a witch, and she has a formula that can bring people back to life for seven days, providing they don’t kill somebody. If they do, they will live forever. Sara had a little girl named Gertie who stretches your suspension of disbelief, but I suppose if you can do it for Stephen King you can do it for Jennifer McMahon.
The qualm I have is that Jennifer leaves us hanging with Sara. I can’t say more without hatching a spoiler. McMahon also leaves room for a hokey sequel in what happens with Gary. I’m not sure if I liked the story because I hadn’t read a ghost story in a long time or if McMahon did such a good job with suspense. I had to go back to the beginning and reread Sarah’s journal, and I never do that; I’ll give her a gold star for that.
With only a few qualms I wasn’t disappointed. It takes author Jennifer McMahon a while to introduce her characters. The main one, I guess, is Sara Harrison Shea who wrote the journal so important to the other characters. She’s famous in West Hall, Vermont, as a murder victim who was skinned alive; her husband, Martin, a hard scrabble farmer, who committed suicide gets the blame.
The next character to enter stage center is Ruthie whose mother disappears. She’s left to take care of her sweet little sister, Fawn. They live in Sara’s old house and soon find some clues as to what may have happened to their mother Alice.
Katherine then enters the picture. Her husband Gary was a photographer and an antiquer who discovered parts of Sara’s journal and photographed it. Gary is killed in a car accident. Katherine discovers a picture of Gary with a woman with a long gray braid, which turns out to be Alice. So, have patience, our characters get together after a while.
Okay, now for the weird stuff. Sara has an aunt who may be a witch, and she has a formula that can bring people back to life for seven days, providing they don’t kill somebody. If they do, they will live forever. Sara had a little girl named Gertie who stretches your suspension of disbelief, but I suppose if you can do it for Stephen King you can do it for Jennifer McMahon.
The qualm I have is that Jennifer leaves us hanging with Sara. I can’t say more without hatching a spoiler. McMahon also leaves room for a hokey sequel in what happens with Gary. I’m not sure if I liked the story because I hadn’t read a ghost story in a long time or if McMahon did such a good job with suspense. I had to go back to the beginning and reread Sarah’s journal, and I never do that; I’ll give her a gold star for that.
