Captive Spirit : A Novel of the Dark Crescent Sisterhood

Trapped by temptation, bound by desire Saving humanity from the supernatural has been challenging latelyeven for a well-trained earth Sybil like Bela Argos, who must harness the magic of a fractious group of warrior sisters and battle a new wave of paranormal attacks. Another challenge is Duncan Sharp, the hunky NYPD detective who might turn into a demon overnight and devour Bela in her sleep. Still, the darkness taking over Duncans body cant stop the molten heat unleashed by the intense attraction between them. Duncan has two major problems: First, he has the soul of a suspected serial killer hitching a ride on his vibe. Worse (yes, worse ) hes got a demonic fever raging inside that promises a world of hurt for everybody, especially Bela. Now hes all about getting even with the demons that put this freak curse in his bloodsatanic forces that dare to unleash their savage lust on Duncans soul, his city, and the woman he loves. From the Paperback edition. From Publishers Weekly Windsor's fourth Dark Crescent Sisterhood novel (after 2008's Bound by Light) is dark and sexy but painfully slow. Bela Argos is the only surviving member of a triad of sibyls, warrior women bound to protect humanity from supernatural threats. She's in the midst of working with a new group of sibyls when they come across a group of tiger demons attacking NYPD cop Duncan Sharpe. Infected with demonic energies and the soul of a friend who's wanted for murder, Duncan is quickly taken into custody by Bela and her team. The lonely sibyl and the cursed cop discover a bittersweet attraction that is the dim highlight of a tale filled with bland dialogue ("Do you know people who do believe in drawing power from perverted rituals?") and bogged down by team dynamics melodrama and an unsubtle murder plot. (Dec.) H Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short StoriesPatricia HighsmithNorton, .95 (736p) ISBN 978-0-393-08013-1As Highsmith biographer Joan Schenkar notes in her introduction to this stellar compendium, "In Highsmith country, good intentions corrupt naturally and automatically, guilt often afflicts the innocent... and life is a suffocating trap from which even her most accomplished escape artists cannot find a graceful exit." This holds true both for the volume's two early novels--1950's acclaimed Strangers on a Train, the basis for the Hitchcock film, and 1952's The Price of Salt, written under the pseudonym Claire Morgan--and 13 short stories, composed between 1939 and 1973. In Strangers, Highsmith takes a disarmingly yet disturbing simple premise--two strangers meet and end up "exchanging" murders--and transforms it into a brutal tour de force of double crosses, doubled identities, and blurred lines between guilt and innocence. Salt, published three years before Lolita, shares the same sexual undercurrent as Nabokov's novel, with the addition of incest and a lesbian love affair, all taboo subjects in 1950s America. The short stories range in tone from the truly unsettling ("A Mighty Nice Man"; "Oona, the Jolly Cave Woman") to the biting ("The Baby Spoon"; "Not One of Us"). While Highsmith (19211995) may be best known for The Talented Mr. Ripley, this collection is proof positive that her savagely sedate prose expands far beyond her hero-villain Patricia Highsmith's dark talents, obsessive interest in love and murder, and macabre sensibility produced some of the most influential and deeply unsettling fiction of the twentieth century. For the reader uninitiated in the deadly world of her canon, this collection offers the first serious introduction to her remarkable range and psychological insight. With an introduction provided by Joan Schenkarauthor of the acclaimed biography The Talented Miss Highsmith Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories continues the remarkable renaissance of this literary master. Even with her first novels, Highsmith tore at the very fabric of 1950s middle-class society, revealing the stark emotional brutality that lurked beneath the sunny facade of Eisenhower suburbia. Chosen by Joan Schenkar, the selections in this booktwo iconic American novels and a trove of her most representative short storieschar the virtuosic range of Highsmith's voice, as she deftly leaps from suspense to horror, from biting social satire to deeply moving psychological drama. In Strangers on a Train (1950)Highsmith's debut novel about the inspiration for the classic Hitchcock filma casual conversation between acquaintances devolves into a tangled web of murder, desperation, and manipulation. This thriller provides as thorough an examination of guilt and obsession as can be found in contemporary literature. Highsmith's second novel, The Price of Salt (1952), is a seductive tale of sexual obsession that demonstrates the astounding versatility of Highsmith's insight into human nature, and has only recently begun to receive commensurate literary recognition. Written during the intensely creative period of her late twenties, The Price of Salt blends Highsmith's richly figured language with the then scandalous subject of lesbian love. The accompanying thirteen short stories demonstrate Highsmith's mastery of the short story form and reveal her to be as fine a craftsman as any American twentieth-century novelist. This volume introduces a new generation to the haunting fiction of one of our most underappreciated literary geniuses. Highsmith country: an intrduction by Joan Schenkar Strangers on a train A mighty nice man The still point of the turning world Where the door is always open and the welcome mat is out Quiet night In the plaza The great cardhouse The baby spoon The price of salt Oona, the jolly cave woman Disagreeable pigeons Not one of us Woodrow wilson's necktie The terrors of basket-weaving The trouble with Mrs. Blynn, the trouble with the world. Collects two novels and thirteen short stories by American writer Patricia Highsmith, including "Strangers on a Train" in which successful architect Guy Haines is harassed on a train by Charles Bruno, who offers to kill Haines' estranged wife if Haines will in turn kill Bruno's father--and then goes on to carry out the unconfirmed bargain