Red Hands
A Novel
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3.9 • 23 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In bestselling author Christopher Golden's supernatural thriller Red Hands, sometimes a story is a warning. Sometimes the warning comes too late
When a mysterious and devastating bioweapon causes its victims to develop Red Hands, the touch of death, weird science expert Ben Walker is called to investigate.
A car plows through the crowd at a July 4th parade. The driver climbs out, sick and stumbling, reaching out…and everyone he touches drops dead within seconds. Maeve Sinclair watches in horror as people she loves begin to die and she knows she must take action. But in the aftermath of this terror, it’s Maeve who possesses that killing touch. Fleeing into the mountains, struggling with her own grief and confusion, Maeve faces the dawning realization that she will never be able to touch another human being again.
"Weird s**t expert” Ben Walker is surprised to get a call from Alena Boudreau, director of the newly restructured Global Science Research Coalition. There’s an upheaval in the organization and she needs to send someone she can trust to Jericho Falls. Whoever finds Maeve Sinclair first will unravel the mystery of her death touch, and many are willing to kill her for that secret.
Walker’s assignment is to get her off the mountain alive. But as Maeve searches for a hiding place, hunted and growing sicker by the moment, she begins to hear an insidious voice in her head, and the yearning, the need… the hunger to touch another human being continues to grow. When Walker and Maeve meet at last, they will unravel a stunning legacy of death and betrayal, and a malignant secret as old as history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Golden's third supernatural thriller featuring Dr. Ben Walker (after The Pandora Room) is almost as good as its predecessors. In the chilling opening scene, a July 4 celebration in Jericho Falls, N.H., turns hellish after a car plows into a crowd. The driver, who is riddled with bullet wounds, emerges from his crashed BMW to kill even more people, this time by touching them with his hands, which appear red and cause death on contact. Only Maeve Sinclair survives the fatal touch but the killer's power transfers to her. As a shadowy group in black coats arrives and takes charge of the crime scene, a horrified Maeve flees to the mountains. News of the incident disrupts Ben Walker's plans to spend some much-needed time with his 12-year-old son, as Alena Boudreau, Walker's new boss at of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, orders him to New Hampshire to investigate and to find Maeve before either the police or the "blackcoats" can get to her. Golden again maintains engagement by making even secondary characters feel real and well-rounded. Series fans will be pleased by this solid installment.
