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Talons: Talons
TIME TO PREY
It plummeted from the sky at midnight, a huge, winged predator, talons unfurled, on a mission of death. . . .
Kari Temple woke screaming from a nightmare so real she could see the victims, feel their terror...taste their blood. But it was no dream when the bodies were discovered the next day. What was the connection between the murders and the newly-discovered Viking graves that yielded 12 silver game pieces -- and a corpse in silver chains?
Why had she been chosen witness -- and collaborator -- in the monster's nightly raids? How could she free herself from the evil that preyed on her mind as it struck again and again, an evil that promised to claim her body and soul. . . .
It plummeted from the sky at midnight, a huge, winged predator, talons unfurled, on a mission of death. . . .
Kari Temple woke screaming from a nightmare so real she could see the victims, feel their terror...taste their blood. But it was no dream when the bodies were discovered the next day. What was the connection between the murders and the newly-discovered Viking graves that yielded 12 silver game pieces -- and a corpse in silver chains?
Why had she been chosen witness -- and collaborator -- in the monster's nightly raids? How could she free herself from the evil that preyed on her mind as it struck again and again, an evil that promised to claim her body and soul. . . .
- GenresHorrorParanormal
208 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1993
25 people want to read
About the author
John Peel
421 books165 followersJohn Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.
He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).
Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..
He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).
Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 17, 2023
I wasn't really sure what kind of book I was going to get opening this one up.
There was the blurb on the back which told me I was looking forward to something about a creature with talons connected to a young woman through her dreams where she could see it murdering people.
I was told there would be Viking graves with bodies in chains and silver game pieces.
Okay we got that sure but also a whole lot of...other stuff going on.
Kari Temple's boyfriend, Ryan Palmer, and his mother are expanding their general store in a small Maine town. The construction stops when they uncover what look to be Viking graves with runes.
Oh and a dead body in silver chains that Kari discovers when she falls into the pit where the foundation was going to be poured.
This is big news to a history buff like Kari and could be something financial to the Palmer family as Ryan's mom is hard into "new age, supernatural mumbo-jumbo" and they once had a medium down in their basement.
She felt an evil presence, went all trance-y and then woke up screaming and running away for her life.
Kari suggests to Mrs. Palmer that she should call the archeologist Dr. Laura Grant who teaches at Boston University to come and examine the site. Kari is a big fan and is excited when she arrives but also a little stunned when her teenage daughter Chelsea seems to have come with her.
Her hair is moussed into punky spikes with green tips, she is surly and has an English accent. Her dad is British while Dr. Grant is American and the couple has been divorced since she was ten.
Chelsea has been ping-ponged between her parents from Oxford to wherever her mother is working at the moment like the Andes or Mexico. It is clear that mother and daughter do not get along very well and it doesn't help that she seems to enjoy Kari's company more than her own daughter being there.
Kari and Chelsea get along okay even if it is rocky at first but that's because it is easier for both girls to find common ground in finding Kari's younger brother Kyle to be a total pain in the butt.
Kyle looks like a clean-cut golden boy but he hangs out with a group of teens who get into a lot of trouble. They have been stealing from businesses all over town and leader Brandon is no one to mess with. There's only one girl Amber who is totally into their alarm specialist Ben and Pete is always blaring his heavy metal music in his Walkman. Morgan is Brandon's loyal cronie and Joey doesn't seem like a fit to the crowd either like Kyle.
Some of Dr. Grant's colleagues take the body found at the site to study how he died and I find it a little funny that Ryan names him "Fred" while she and her daughter begin sifting through the dirt for artifacts. Kari helps out and that doesn't really seem like it sits well with Chelsea while her mother doesn't mind at all.
Things start to get...interesting.
Kari starts to get these weird feelings and starts having these visions where she faints and nightmares where she wakes up in a cold sweat or screaming at the top of her lungs. Not enough to wake her parents but Chelsea is bunking with the Temple family because Dr. Grant is staying with the Palmers and she wants Chelsea as far away from Ryan as possible...wow.
Twelve little silver statues are soon found by Dr. Grant and we learn the corpse was hacked up to pieces in those chains with scoring on the bones. So it was either a human sacrifice to the Norse gods or a Berserker.
A viking filled with a blood rage to kill and kill and kill...you get the drift.
Kari feels darkness and anger and rage in the air. The runes are ancient but start to slowly be deciphered as a death curse. For disturbing the grave of the viking? It isn't clear until the silver statues are stolen.
By who else but Kyle and his gang thanks to Chelsea and Kari trying to put him in his place when he bad-mouths all the "dumb stuff" they probably dug up.
Brandon knows they can't pawn off the statues but if he can melt them down with his father's equipment for making bullets into silver bars it will be easy to get cash that way. One by one each gang member will get their rightful share of the silver...among other things.
Destroying the statues weakens their hold of binding a very powerful, ancient predator with long wings and terrifyingly, sharp talons...
Kari has dreams about the deaths and she can see through the creature's eyes, feel the anger and taste the blood.
Soon, the police are no longer looking into the robberies but the murders plaguing the town. The sheriff seeking justice and his deputy disgusted by what he thinks is a town full of out of control boys and girls, punks...scum.
What will it take to end the carnage of these attacks? Can the answer be found in time before Kari loses not only her mind but her very soul...to the monster?
We get a little bit of Norse mythology and history so if you are into learning some Viking lore, you will love this book for sure.
There is also some past-life regression therapy in this book that is like a combination of movie "hypnosis" where you are skeptical but it goes so off the rails it is by no means funny or hokey...it is terrifying.
I believe in things like that to a degree but yeah nope...I'll just let my past lives be in the past, thank you.
Kari is a pretty decent person, so are her parents, so I have no idea why her brother is such a snot.
Despite the "paranormal abnormality obsession" of Mrs. Palmer, she seems to be a nice lady who has raised her son Ryan to be a good guy. Both mother and son can be very blunt, Ryan a tad rude at times, but I can see why Kari likes Ryan and soon looks to his mother for some advice on all of the weirdness.
Chelsea is not a bad person as we get deeper into the book. She's a child of divorced parents and wants her mother's approval so bad. I kind of find myself liking her snarkiness after awhile.
Dr. Laura Grant is another story.
She seems like she is just a very dedicated professional in her field, not at all unlike Dr. Temperance Brennan of Bones, at first. Soon it is made very clear that she is very devoid of any kind of feelings of love or let alone even like for her ex-husband or her daughter.
Even Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan would think this woman is a monster.
There are some thrills and chills in this book and Peel's handling of what the creature is...is an interesting one I'll give you that.
Everything is set up to be this very excellent climax but it just sort of...fizzles out. There are still some questions I'm asking mentally but not getting any kind of answer and it seems kind of important...
Also, we just totally are left in the dark about the fates of some characters.
Ambiguous outcomes are one thing but I never thought I would have the day come when I actually wanted just oodles of exposition dropped on my head at the end. I mean Peel has offered me aliens, werewolves, shape-shifters and demons so I'm not at a loss for creativity but I didn't expect such an ending of feeling something was missing.
I liked it but I could have really liked it...Talons could have been amazing, even.
I still recommend it if you are a fan of Peel's work and want something creepy to read. His style of writing teens as intelligent yet capturing the way they talk coming off as witty and sharp makes Peel a favorite author of mine.
Maybe he'll be one of yours too.
There was the blurb on the back which told me I was looking forward to something about a creature with talons connected to a young woman through her dreams where she could see it murdering people.
I was told there would be Viking graves with bodies in chains and silver game pieces.
Okay we got that sure but also a whole lot of...other stuff going on.
Kari Temple's boyfriend, Ryan Palmer, and his mother are expanding their general store in a small Maine town. The construction stops when they uncover what look to be Viking graves with runes.
Oh and a dead body in silver chains that Kari discovers when she falls into the pit where the foundation was going to be poured.
This is big news to a history buff like Kari and could be something financial to the Palmer family as Ryan's mom is hard into "new age, supernatural mumbo-jumbo" and they once had a medium down in their basement.
She felt an evil presence, went all trance-y and then woke up screaming and running away for her life.
Kari suggests to Mrs. Palmer that she should call the archeologist Dr. Laura Grant who teaches at Boston University to come and examine the site. Kari is a big fan and is excited when she arrives but also a little stunned when her teenage daughter Chelsea seems to have come with her.
Her hair is moussed into punky spikes with green tips, she is surly and has an English accent. Her dad is British while Dr. Grant is American and the couple has been divorced since she was ten.
Chelsea has been ping-ponged between her parents from Oxford to wherever her mother is working at the moment like the Andes or Mexico. It is clear that mother and daughter do not get along very well and it doesn't help that she seems to enjoy Kari's company more than her own daughter being there.
Kari and Chelsea get along okay even if it is rocky at first but that's because it is easier for both girls to find common ground in finding Kari's younger brother Kyle to be a total pain in the butt.
Kyle looks like a clean-cut golden boy but he hangs out with a group of teens who get into a lot of trouble. They have been stealing from businesses all over town and leader Brandon is no one to mess with. There's only one girl Amber who is totally into their alarm specialist Ben and Pete is always blaring his heavy metal music in his Walkman. Morgan is Brandon's loyal cronie and Joey doesn't seem like a fit to the crowd either like Kyle.
Some of Dr. Grant's colleagues take the body found at the site to study how he died and I find it a little funny that Ryan names him "Fred" while she and her daughter begin sifting through the dirt for artifacts. Kari helps out and that doesn't really seem like it sits well with Chelsea while her mother doesn't mind at all.
Things start to get...interesting.
Kari starts to get these weird feelings and starts having these visions where she faints and nightmares where she wakes up in a cold sweat or screaming at the top of her lungs. Not enough to wake her parents but Chelsea is bunking with the Temple family because Dr. Grant is staying with the Palmers and she wants Chelsea as far away from Ryan as possible...wow.
Twelve little silver statues are soon found by Dr. Grant and we learn the corpse was hacked up to pieces in those chains with scoring on the bones. So it was either a human sacrifice to the Norse gods or a Berserker.
A viking filled with a blood rage to kill and kill and kill...you get the drift.
Kari feels darkness and anger and rage in the air. The runes are ancient but start to slowly be deciphered as a death curse. For disturbing the grave of the viking? It isn't clear until the silver statues are stolen.
By who else but Kyle and his gang thanks to Chelsea and Kari trying to put him in his place when he bad-mouths all the "dumb stuff" they probably dug up.
Brandon knows they can't pawn off the statues but if he can melt them down with his father's equipment for making bullets into silver bars it will be easy to get cash that way. One by one each gang member will get their rightful share of the silver...among other things.
Destroying the statues weakens their hold of binding a very powerful, ancient predator with long wings and terrifyingly, sharp talons...
Kari has dreams about the deaths and she can see through the creature's eyes, feel the anger and taste the blood.
Soon, the police are no longer looking into the robberies but the murders plaguing the town. The sheriff seeking justice and his deputy disgusted by what he thinks is a town full of out of control boys and girls, punks...scum.
What will it take to end the carnage of these attacks? Can the answer be found in time before Kari loses not only her mind but her very soul...to the monster?
We get a little bit of Norse mythology and history so if you are into learning some Viking lore, you will love this book for sure.
There is also some past-life regression therapy in this book that is like a combination of movie "hypnosis" where you are skeptical but it goes so off the rails it is by no means funny or hokey...it is terrifying.
I believe in things like that to a degree but yeah nope...I'll just let my past lives be in the past, thank you.
Kari is a pretty decent person, so are her parents, so I have no idea why her brother is such a snot.
Despite the "paranormal abnormality obsession" of Mrs. Palmer, she seems to be a nice lady who has raised her son Ryan to be a good guy. Both mother and son can be very blunt, Ryan a tad rude at times, but I can see why Kari likes Ryan and soon looks to his mother for some advice on all of the weirdness.
Chelsea is not a bad person as we get deeper into the book. She's a child of divorced parents and wants her mother's approval so bad. I kind of find myself liking her snarkiness after awhile.
Dr. Laura Grant is another story.
She seems like she is just a very dedicated professional in her field, not at all unlike Dr. Temperance Brennan of Bones, at first. Soon it is made very clear that she is very devoid of any kind of feelings of love or let alone even like for her ex-husband or her daughter.
Even Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan would think this woman is a monster.
There are some thrills and chills in this book and Peel's handling of what the creature is...is an interesting one I'll give you that.
Everything is set up to be this very excellent climax but it just sort of...fizzles out. There are still some questions I'm asking mentally but not getting any kind of answer and it seems kind of important...
Also, we just totally are left in the dark about the fates of some characters.
Ambiguous outcomes are one thing but I never thought I would have the day come when I actually wanted just oodles of exposition dropped on my head at the end. I mean Peel has offered me aliens, werewolves, shape-shifters and demons so I'm not at a loss for creativity but I didn't expect such an ending of feeling something was missing.
I liked it but I could have really liked it...Talons could have been amazing, even.
I still recommend it if you are a fan of Peel's work and want something creepy to read. His style of writing teens as intelligent yet capturing the way they talk coming off as witty and sharp makes Peel a favorite author of mine.
Maybe he'll be one of yours too.
December 31, 2025
This was certainly an unknown book from the 90s, not my favorite writing style but a fun story overall.
April 13, 2013
This was a book was publishing in the early 1990s, but has a somewhat 1980s feel. I don't know the actual word count, but I would place a guess at around 40k words, so more a novella than a novel. The short length does impact the story arch and character development compared to what would occur in a full length novel, so just a word of warning if you are not used to the shorter length works.
I initially picked it up because of Viking overtones and plot items. However, it did not have as much as I had hoped for and the story line may have touched on too many concepts for the length.
I read the book in one evening and as a few hour distraction, it fit the bill well enough.
I initially picked it up because of Viking overtones and plot items. However, it did not have as much as I had hoped for and the story line may have touched on too many concepts for the length.
I read the book in one evening and as a few hour distraction, it fit the bill well enough.
October 19, 2014
A good read but I think it was kinda predictable for a mystery title, like you could easily guess who the mystery man and the monster were halfway through the story...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews