Soul Catcher
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
Black Wolf, the ancient Shaman of the Caribou People and their last survivor, leaves his ancestral lands in Western Canada to go to Seattle, driven by a confusing vision that tells him of a final task he must perform and of a boy with no ears. But before he can perform his final quest, he is murdered by a gang of Seattle thugs. With his last breath, Black Wolf calls upon the spirit wind, Williwaw, to avenge his death and complete his mission. Now all of Seattle will have to pay for the desecration.
Seattle and its environs are suddenly hit by a series of deadly gale-force winds, winds that strike from nowhere, causing massive death and destruction. Only Evan Baker, a thirteen-year-old deaf boy with a gift for second sight, understands that these winds are not some freak meteorological phenomenon. Only he knows that this wind is intelligent, that its attacks are just part of a scheme of revenge, and that, when its revenge is complete, the wind will be coming for him. Now, with a ragtag group of allies – including Paul Judge, a Native American lawyer; Billy Mossman, a prizewinning journalist fallen on hard times; and Helen Anderson, a survivor of one of Williwaw’s attacks – Evan must find a way to defeat an all-powerful enemy that no one can see and few believe exists. And he must do it before time runs out and the next to die is himself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First-time novelist Kersey melds elements of the Indian curse story and the disaster novel in this fast-paced horror tale set in contemporary Seattle. When a gang of street punks murders the shaman Black Wolf, they unwittingly release Williwaw, a wind elemental of Native American mythology bent on avenging the death. As Williwaw seeks out deaf 12-year-old Evan Baker, ``the boy with no ears'' whom Black Wolf saw in a cryptic final vision, the elemental wreaks destruction that touches the lives of many. These include public defender Paul Judge, an investigative reporter, a retired high-school teacher and a young widow, all of whose personal experiences give the novel's powerful scenes of natural catastrophe a convincing human dimension. If Kersey's multiperspective narrative seems a nod to Stephen King, his main characters are a bow to Dean Koontz: Evan is protected throughout his ordeal by a faithful dog, while his mother and Paul, who are both attractive but inexplicably unattached, are destined to be brought together by the young boy's peril. The story holds few surprises, and the explanation for why Evan has been singled out by Williwaw proves anticlimactic. Nevertheless, Kersey shows an aptitude for bringing characters to life, as well as for finding fresh possibilities in some of the genre's stalest ideas.
