Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand

With Red Hands With Red Hands
by Stephen Woodworth
Piatkus

Supplied for review by Hachette New Zealand

Reviewed By: Kevin G. Maclean

As I commented in my review of Through Violet Eyes, Stephen Woodworth is a talented writer, but his first book showed inexperience. Not so, the second book—it flows seamlessly and transparently to its end, leaving one with the feeling "Wow, that was good. But what can he do after this?"

Once again, I’m not going to try to place it in a specific genre, because it has elements of many, but to say it was a Detective Paranormal would be accurate but incomplete. The novel is set in a current-day USA where those with violet eyes can channel the dead, and those without can’t. It starts six years after the end of its predecessor, and Natalie Lindstrom, our protagonist, now has a daughter, and has left the Corps. The Corps has not taken this gracefully.

So, what has he come up with? A member of the Corps who can give false testimony while possessed, that's what. Now I'm not going to tell you how, nor the drawbacks of the method he uses, nor how Natalie concludes that her mother is not, and has never been, insane as everyone thought. That's what the book is for.

And my recommendation? Buy it. Read it, but not while you're alone in the house—I found the second half quite disturbing, and that's rare. I promise you, the payoff is worth it.

I still have the next two in the series waiting to be reviewed. I’m looking forward to them even more.

SFFANZ is a non-profit organisation and registered charity
designed to bring together fans of the fantastic in New Zealand

Contact us by email at: enquiries@sffanz.org.nz