John SearlesCríticas

My rating is really a 3.5. This book is perfect for fans of The Conjuring and suspense novels. Sylvie is the good daughter, she is the youngest of her parent's two kids and the one that can be counted on. Her parents are "helpers" they take demonic or spiritual cases and try to solve problems with prayer. As their notoriety grows across the country, things get harder at home. Her older sister Rose acts up and starts driving a wedge between their parents. When her parents are murdered in a church after meeting with a client they helped in the past, Sylvie is the key to the case. But what does she really remember. Told in alternating timelines between the past and the present; Help for the Haunted starts out pretty slow but the pace really picks up in the last third of the book.

about 90 % of this book is a well written enjoyable read. Like all good horror-much of the tension comes from underlying psychology and inter-relationships in the everyday world. Then throw in ax murders and creepy dolls for good measure. The author chose to base the story on some paranormal investigators form the Catholic church that lived in the community where he grew up.He should have done some research .
*****spoiler alert don't read further if you have not finished******
Catholics don't have reprogramming schools for homosexuals-as some other "Christian " religions do.
That made the implausible ending even more implausible.
A real shame because the main character and the family dynamic were very interesting

I enjoyed this book a lot. I often dislike stories narrated by a teenager because they don't ring true (too mature or too immature) but I thought the author did a good job here. Sylvie is an interesting and complicated young woman with an unusual family and an even more unusual upbringing. I loved the way the story jumped back in forth in time and gradually revealed her history as well as what was happening currently. The title makes it sound like a supernatural thriller and there are certainly elements of that but people can be haunted in more than one way and this book focuses more on family, experience, and identity than on literal ghosts.

Three storylines and each one is fascinating! The way they wind around each other will keep you in your seat reading leaving your errands undone! My first book by John Searles but definitely not my last one!

Thank you NetGalley for this engaging book. There are two story lines but the one that got me the most was Skyla’s. (Great, original name btw). She is a widow, her husband Hollis has died recently. Did Skyla help with that? She wears a lanyard around her neck with keys. In her pockets are an assortment of pills, they’re all jumbled together because Skyla is losing her eyesight. This doesn’t stop her from flirting with her tenant in the twin house of her’s in New York State. I loved the descriptions, the smell of the woods, the way Searles describes life. The fact he includes a dog. This would be a great book for book club—one chapter at a time.

3.5 rounded up.

I’m really not sure why, but I very rarely seem to read male authors. I’m now adding Mr. Searles to my list of authors that I need to read more of their books.

This was a different type of thriller. Definitely had no clue where the author was going or what was going to happen, especially since I had no clue of the author’s writing style. Slow in parts and a little “common, cut to the chase”, but a twisty thriller none the less. Characters were an eclectic group of sad sacks that I couldn’t figure out how they would all fit together. Story slowly developed, and everything was tied together at the end.

Thanks to Mrs Searles, William Marrow and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.½

This was a bit of a psychological thriller and you really had no idea what was all going on exactly or how everyone was connected at first. Told through various characters, each one had their story to tell a past that they had held secret, and secrets that had stayed hidden. The main character Skyla has rented out the other identical cottage to her, to this mysterious man who she had a feeling would pay as expected and not complicate the life she had cut out for herself. The two grow closer over time, but it still a bit of cat and mouse as they each try to gain more information about the other persons past and what has brought them to this time in their life. Skyla the widow living by the abandoned drive in movie theatre, Teddy the perfect renter with that England accent, Jeremy just trying to find his way in the world after somewhat of a cruel upbringing, and Linelle trying to find something from her past. The storylines of these characters all masterfully get wound together through time and I love how the author used the old movie theatre as the entires to each chapter- with dialogues from various movies over the years. Thank you to William Morrow for the free ARC.

Skyla has recently lost her sight. She lives next door to a rundown drive-in movie theater which she and her husband ran for years. She decides to rent the cottage next door to a Teddy Cornwell. Skyla just loves his accent! Teddy is currently trying to lure an old girlfriend, Linelle away from her boring marriage. So, this seems the perfect place. Then there is Jeremy. Jeremy is a restaurant critic. His next job is Providence, RI. This town holds some unique memories and quite a few he wants to relive.

Now that I have introduced all the characters…let’s get to the meat of the story! This novel starts a bit slow, but that is just the introduction to the characters…so stay with it. Because it sure builds and builds…until the intensity does not stop and you just have to see where it is going to end.

I think my favorite character is Skyla. She is not at all what you think! And I love the way the author throws in some humor. What a great way to keep the story moving and the reader engrossed.

Need a good psychological thriller…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Her Last Affair is a slow burn, character-driven story that follows seemingly unrelated characters. An exploration of choices made, regrets experienced and how past hurts carry into the future. Marketed as a thriller, I found it to be more reflective and pensive, almost contemporary fiction, with a bit of mystery thrown in. Maybe due to the slower pacing of the book, I didn't get the edge of the seat feels like a thriller normally has me feeling.

Skyla is a widow living alone in a cottage, on the property of a non-operating, family owned drive-in movie theater. She rents the second cottage out to Teddy, who looks to reconnect to a long ago young love relationship with, Linelle.
Jeremy who seemingly is unrelated to the rest of the characters, is tangled up with past crushes, new breakups and low self esteem..

The plot unfolds steadily intertwining the past with the future in a combustible ending. About half way the pace picked up a bit and I found I enjoyed the second half a bit more than the first. Good for those that like a character driven story, where the author takes his time creating exceptional characters and weaving an intriguing mystery.

A solid three star read.

Thank you to @netgalley and publisher William Morrow for an advanced digital copy in exchange of an honest review.

Her Last Affair by John Searles is a highly recommended novel of psychological suspense.

The novel unfolds through the point of view of three characters. Skyla Hull, a retired nurse in Rhode Island, was married to Hollis for almost fifty years until his accident the previous year. Now that macular degeneration has severely reduced her sight, her activity is limited so she spends much of her day mourning Hollis and ruminating about his long term affair. She decides to rent the cottage next door to a British man named Teddy Cornwell. Miles away in Florida, Linelle Durfort reconnects with her first love, Teddy Cornwell. In NYC, Jeremy Lichanel, a writer who is unhappy with his physical appearance, gets an assignment to review a restaurant in Providence and decides to look up an old friend who broke his heart years ago.

These desperate, heartbroken, and isolated characters are seeking retribution and closure, thinking their actions will provide them satisfaction, fulfillment, and love. As the three diverse, and atmospheric multiple narratives unfold, you will be waiting for the connection between these characters. The connection won't come right away, but when it does it will be in a meteoric twist that will entirely change the story from a complex study of forlorn, unhappy, and bitter characters to almost a horror novel. This is an intricate plot that requires attention to each narrative thread in order to fully comprehend and appreciate the intense cinematic denouement.

I have to admit, sheepishly, that while I was glued to the pages at the shocking end of the novel when everything was going down and coming together, I actually quit enjoyed the earlier character studies of these despondent, unlikable individuals a bit more than the chilling climax. Understandably, I'm likely alone in this feeling. The ending is compelling and shocking. It pulls together all three narratives and undeniably will hold your attention.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/02/her-last-affair.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4554564016

I was with it until I realized the twist and then I was just annoyed.

Help for the Haunted
by John Searles
What an excellent, page turning thriller! Wow! So many unknowns, secrets, mysteries, scary situations, and possibilities! Had me gripping the page to the very last page!

Our young gal just a young teen, barely, and has an older and wilder sister who fights with the over domineering religious parents who are also famous Demonologists.

This is a flash back and forth between present and past telling the history of various episodes in their lives coming up to the parents murder that the sister may or may not have had something to do with. That same sister who has custody of her now, and that our gal lied to the police for to keep her out of trouble. But things aren't adding up.

Then there is the paranormal activity. How much can she explain away? Her parents kept the cursed objects in the basement in a special room. A doll called Penny is down there in a cage too because she was moving around the house.

I loved this book. It kept me entertained and thinking. Multiple puzzles to solve, I love that! The ending was great! But when you thing back, not all was solved....wiggling scary fingers!

This novel is about a girl raised by evangelical parents who make their livelihood by driving out demons from those who suffer. There are too many options about who to believe, so the character is in a constant state of frustration and so is the reader.

Not quite sure what I expected out of this novel, but this wasn't it. And that's not a bad thing.

Basically, it feels as though Searles saw The Conjuring, did a little reading on Ed and Lorraine Warren, and riffed on the whole doll sequence at the beginning of the movie. It's a paranormal novel that isn't paranormal. It's more about belief--belief in the right things and belief in the wrong things.

And it's an interesting story of two sisters.

I enjoyed the novel, and the only reason I'm giving it three stars instead of four is due to some of the clunky dialogue, especially toward the end of the novel, as well as a couple of character shifts that weren't developed enough.

But overall, a fine novel.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. For half if it I was worried it was going to be a retelling of The Conjuring, then it slid more firmly into whodunnit. I didn't love the solution, and I can't imagine that it made life much easier for the police. Tied up for the reader, but the characters are probably mired in years of red tape.

When Highschool football player, and all around good guy, Ronnie, dies in a nasty car crash that occurred on the way home from the senior prom. The facts are that the limo driver was way above the alcohol level that was safe, all the money from law suits cannot bring him Ronnie back.

Ronnie leaves behind a community, a school, his grieving parents, his brother, and Melissa, a girl friend who, five years after the accident, is pregnant and claiming through divine intervention, Ronnie is the father.

While the plot is twisted, it is easy to follow. Ronnie's parents are divorced. His surgeon father remarried and moved to Florida. Ronnie's mother cannot help but be incredibly, darkly bitter.

Ronnie's brother is the narrator of the story, and we follow him as he leaves Radnor, PA and moves to New York City in the hope of writing a best seller book of poetry.

Melissa finds a run down cottage owned by a husband and wife who look after her. The husband become just a bit too friendly. There are three cottages. The husband and wife who own the properties live in one cottage, the other is rented to Melissa and the third, unbeknownst to others, contains the bodies of some of the husband's targets/

He previously belonged to the Radnor, PA police force, but because of a scandal regarding a young woman who claims he physically exploited her, he is asked to leave his job.. In support of him, his wife Gail who worked at the police station, leaves as well.

Various characters are in states of grief or denial. The ending is very suspenseful.

I've read three other of John Searle's books, all of which are excellent.

Four Stars

Although the primary story occurs in 1989, a coming-of-age story of the youngest daughter in a two child family is told through flashbacks. The primary mystery surrounds the death of the protagonist's (Sylvie) parents, lecturers and investigators into the paranormal. Their Maryland home, a dilapidated Tudor is a beacon for a stream of visitors seeking help for a number of paranormal activities. The home's basement houses a number of supernatural artifacts, including a toddler-size rag doll named Penny, initially carried by Sylvie's mother and bone of contention with Sylvie's older sister, Rose, because the family has received negative attention regarding the sanity of their mother.

An itinerant, homeless man, seeking assistance from Sylvie's parents, is accused of her parents' murders. After their death, Rose who recently reached the age of majority becomes her sister's guardian, however, she does not take her responsibility too seriously. The flashbacks set the stage for the reader to question give the reader a better understanding of this unusual family and are a wealth of "red herrings" in understanding what happened to Sylvie and Rose's parents.

Although the flashbacks were necessary for character development, I found I was frequently slogging through the pages. I wish that there was a bit more action in this part of the book as I found in the unforeseen climax and the mystery solved. A good read, but not a great read IMHO.

The Masons are an unusual family, a fact that their community realizes once newspaper articles and then a book about them appear. Sylvester and Rose Mason are paranormal investigators and faith healers, but as this story takes place in the late 80's- early 90's, that's a bizarre occupation, and making things worse, they really believe in possession and spirits and have filled their basement with evil objects removed from clients.
Their teenage daughter, also named Rose, is old enough to be enraged that her parents are so weird and cause the family to be the target of pranks and ridicule. But this story is told by the youngest of the family, Sylvie, who gets the brunt of the mess because she's timid and her sister's horrible behavior obligates Sylvie to always be accommodating even when it's unfair.
From the very beginning the reader knows that Sylvie's parents have been murdered and that Sylvie witnessed some of what happened, but since the Masons took on the burden of several sick strangers, mostly because Sylvester was interested in the fame "curing" these people brought, there were several different scenarios that might have happened in that dark church.½

This was one of those dark and creepy and mysterious books that I couldn't put down. Searles experiments with the way he lets the story unfold, moving back and forth in time and layering a series of questions that need to be answered. He brings it all together by the end, although deliberately doesn't answer all of the questions. The main whodunnit mystery is answered and this is the one thing I didn't feel satisfied about. I won't give away the details. I'm just not sure it was the right strategy on how to conclude that part of the story. But I loved this book and his writing overall.

Author John Searles wrote a brilliant novel, in Help for the Haunted. There is a great in-depth characterization of the main characters, so much so that a reader feels they know these people, and well. The vivid imagery of this novel had me hooked from the very first chapter, and the narrator's rendition is absolutely flawless, here. (I switched between the audiobook and ebook). In fact, this is one of those rare books that enfolds and encompasses you completely.
The parents in the novel are loosely based on Lorraine and Ed Warren, who were ghost hunters of a kind in the 60's and the 70's. Even a few ideas, like the spooky raggedy Ann doll, were borrowed from the movie, The Conjuring. Because I've seen this movie, the parts of the book that dealt with the doll moving around of its own accord had me quite freaked out, at one point.....but gleefully so. And having been a HUGE fan of Stephen King, Dean Koontz and John Saul since I was 14, that's a pretty big deal. But while gothic elements of the storyline add a spooky tone throughout, this is where the ghost story line ends.
The suspense entwined in this novel is crated by the complex construction of the author's narrative, the paranormal, religious, and demonic beliefs blended so realistically in this story that it kept you on edge all the way to the unbelievable, twisted ending. The story had a very intricate, complicated plot that you didn't know one minute to the next, what was real or not. Sylvie's memories are interspersed with present day happenings, but Sylvie's memories are not chronological and are often muddled. So the reader is encouraged to try to piece together the narrative timeline and work out seemingly unconnected occurrences. And Sylvie, as much as she wants to better understand her parents and the events leading up to their death, is also afraid to learn the truth and shatter her illusions about her family. So she will start and then stop parts of her investigation, leaving the reader wanting more information or clarification.
We feel very tenderly for Sylvie--her childhood was tough, she was under a lot of pressure to be the opposite of her sister, her mother's time and effort were often taken away from her by all of the "haunted" people in the Masons' lives coming for help. So Her very investigation seems to Sylvie like a betrayal of her parents, even if it's in pursuit of their murderer. Though sometimes unrealistically precocious, Sylvie is likeable, vulnerable, and wise beyond her years. (And the character Abigail.....? Holy crap, that kid.......!!).

A word on Searles' prose style. As I said above, I was completely lost in this book. Searles has the rare gift of utterly disappearing from his text, and this is a wonderful thing. Some authors are intrusive, but Searles deftly constructs a narrative that unfolds seemingly by itself, without authorial guidance. Instead of employing hackneyed metaphors and similes, Searles uses such moments to insert anecdotes about Sylvie's life. In this way Searles beautifully and unobtrusively builds up the characterization of his players and provides their backgrounds. I felt like I knew these people, And i had become so wrapped up in their lives that I wanted - no, NEEDED to help.........and then The ending was so poignant that I wept.

At the heart of fantastical (the murders, the hauntings) is a troubled family, which can sometimes be the most frightening thing of all. How well do we know our mothers, fathers, or sisters? Would we still love them if we truly knew them? These are the questions Searles poses with subtlety. Help For the Haunted is a beautiful , transporting novel, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
5 huge stars for this awesome author.

Good, rambling in parts, but interesting.

What is Ed and Lorraine Warren had kids? I feel like this is the main idea in this story. Did not go where I thought it was going to. Also, I hated the older sister. UGH. I did like it, but not as much as I wanted to.

Sylvie Mason has always been the good daughter compared to her sister, Rose. Sylive and Rose's parents have given the girls an interesting life- to say the least. Their parents made a living by helping people who are haunted, they often took objects or even people into their home. Sylvie and Rose's life changes drastically after Penny, a doll and Abigail, a troubled girl come into their lives. After their parents take these cases, their parents are killed. Rose is left as Sylvie's guardian and 14 year-old Sylvie is the only witness to her parent's deaths. As Sylvie tries to recollect what happened that night, she recounts her strange life in order to figure out who or what actually killed her parents.

Help For The Haunted is a creepy murder-mystery that seems to be inspired by the life of the Warrens. The narration skips back and forth between time from Sylvie's childhood and the events leading up to her parents deaths and after Sylvie's parents have died, the result of this is slightly disorienting, but brings us into Sylvie's mindset. As the story unfolds, the battle of the natural versus the supernatural begin to unfold as Sylvie tries to determine what really caused all of the strange events in their lives and who really killed her parents. I was very intrigued by Penny and Abigail and why they were believed to be haunted as well as their real sources of power of people. Rose's character was an enigma, as well as an important part of the story; it seemed that no one understood her, including her parents that were supposed to be able to help children who were struggling. The ending wrapped up rather quickly as Sylvie exposed the truth of her family .Overall, a suspenseful crime thriller with plenty of supernatural elements that will keep you guessing.½

A great read. Searles never disappoints. This is a story of suspense but infused with wit and mystery. The cast of characters is this novel are so well written and so interesting. Philip must confront his past along with his mother and this journey is filled with many ups and downs. When Ronnie's high school girl friend shows up and drops her bombshell, I was sucked in. I couldn't put this one down.

Young girl, Sylvie, tries to solve the murder of her parents. Proof that "eyewitnesses" are inherently unreliable. A "dark portrait of a troubled family beset by the supernatural." Mother, Rose, is a kind, calming force. Daughter, Rose, is anything but. Father, Sylvester, is living a lie.