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"A fast, smart novel, brighter than a meteor and twice as scary. Stephen Woodworth provides shocks and thoughts in equal measure, and climbs right to the top!"--Greg Bear In a world where the dead can testify against the living, someone is getting away with murder. Because to every generation are born a select few souls with violet-colored eyes, and the ability to channel the dead. Both rare and precious--and rigidly controlled by a society that craves their services--these Violets perform a number of different duties. The most fortunate increase the world's cultural heritage by channeling the still-creative spirits of famous dead artists and musicians. The least fortunate aid the police and the law courts, catching criminals by interviewing the deceased victims of violent crime. But now the Violets themselves have become the target of a brutal serial murderer--a murderer who had learned how to mask his or her identity even from the victims. Can the FBI, aided by a Violet so scared of death that she is afraid to live, uncover the criminal in time? Or must more of her race be dispatched to the realm that has haunted them all since childhood? Praise for Through Violet Eyes "Chilling . . . shades of Minority Report and The Eyes of Laura Mars . . . tantalizing puzzle rife with red herrings, one made all the more entertaining by brisk pacing and strong internal logic."--Publishers Weekly a"Wow . . . one cool idea and Stephen Woodworth makes it work like fine oiled machinery. Full of energy and suspense, Through Violet Eyes is a great and original first novel. I look forward to his next."--Joe R. Lansdale "An eerie and compelling page-turner that maps the terra incognita between the living and the dead, loss and redemption, desire and grief, at the same time exploring what it means to be human in a frightening otherworld that too closely evokes our own reality."--Elizabeth Hand… (more)
User reviews
The book was pretty good, it seemed pretty average throughout, until
The unexpected ending bumped the book up from average to above average in my opinion. It was a good read, and I'll be reading the next book in the series.
Natalie Lindstrom is a Violet, one of a very few humans born with violet eyes, a characteristic that brings with it an ability to speak directly with the dead and to have the dead speak and act directly through them. The existence of Violets, never explained, allows for the painting of Picassos and Monets through the hands of the living (imagine having Picasso in your head, controlling your hands, creating new masterpieces through your fingers); the study of history by receiving the testimony of those who created it; and, most importantly, by allowing murder victims to testify at the trials of their murderers. Despite her preference to work with artists, Natalie has been assigned by the North American Afterlife Communications Corps – the NAACC – to work in law enforcement. As Through Violet Eyes opens, she has been assigned to work with the FBI in tracking down a serial murderer who is targeting Violets themselves. She knows about the assignment before FBI agent Dan Atwater approaches her, because the dead Violets have already been talking to her about the masked individual who killed them.
Through Violet Eyes fascinates with its history of the NAACC, the training of Violets, and the torture of the lives they live, being constantly in touch with – indeed, living through the deaths of – those who have died incredibly ugly, demeaning, tragic deaths. No wonder Natalie seems to be such a prickly character, rude to Dan, who is himself afraid to let her touch him in any way, even so much as a handshake, for fear she will then be able to communicate with those whom he has killed in the line of duty. (Violets need a “touchstone” to initiate contact – something the dead touched, including another human being.) Watching Natalie and Dan progress from a couple who barely tolerate one another to a couple quickly and deeply in love is a treat within a treat, as the mystery deepens and the danger increases. This is a very accomplished first novel.
Woodworth’s sequel, With Red Hands, is even more hair-raising. It begins four years after the events of Through Violet Eyes. Natalie has quit the NAACC to raise Callie, the daughter she and Dan created, who has inherited her Violet eyes from her mother. The NAACC isn’t taking her retirement lying down, however, and neither is it pleased that Natalie refuses to enroll Callie at the NAACC’s school, a place of childhood horrors from which Natalie has never herself recovered. The NAACC has blackballed Natalie from almost any sort of work, including those occupations that would not require her to use her Violet talents at all, to force her back into the fold. But Natalie scrounges a living with private clients who want a final word with a parent or a husband – contacts that rarely work out as well as the clients would like them to – and resists the frequent blandishments of the school and ignores the spies who keep watch on her 24 hours a day.
With Red Hands explores what happens when a Violet goes bad. Even though judges are careful to instruct juries that the testimony of a victim is not to be accorded any greater weight than that of any other witness, what juror can ignore the actual presence in the courtroom of the victim testifying to the circumstances of his or her own death? If a defendant can obtain false testimony from a corrupt Violet cooperating with an evil dead soul so as to fool the SoulScan that testifies to a Violet’s possession, that defendant has a possibility approaching 100% of going free. But how does one uncover such a Violet, and how does one escape the corrupt soul that is possessing him? That is what Natalie must do, and all without allowing the NAACC to figure out what she’s doing. In the meantime, she must figure out how to raise a child who is herself subject to visitations from the dead, and teach her how to keep her mind and body to herself, and not to allow herself to be used as the instrument of others. The mystery is carefully thought out, and the human implications are beautifully explored in this marvelously entertaining novel.
Natalie’s adventures continue four years later in In Golden Blood. Natalie’s estrangement from the NAACC has grown even more bitter, and the NAACC’s attempts to keep Natalie from making a living of any sort has made her desperate. When she gets an extraordinarily lucrative and very secretive offer to delve into the history of Peru to uncover a treasure trove hidden away for the ages by the conquistador Pizarro, she takes it despite her misgivings. Woodworth has obviously researched his subject matter extensively, and Natalie’s trials and tribulations in communing with Pizarro in the far reaches of the Andes Mountains provide the close reader with a history lesson as well as an excellent thriller.
The teaser for From Black Rooms contained at the end of In Golden Blood suggests that it will be at least as enjoyable as the first three books in this entertaining series. I look forward to reading it – and anything else Stephen Woodworth might have to offer up in coming years.