Red Hands by Christopher Golden
Ben Walker Book 3
St. Martin's Press
Released Dec 8th, 2020
This is the third book in the Ben Walker series by Christopher Golden and I'll go ahead and say from the start that I don't believe you need to have read the others to enjoy this one. There are references to the other books but nothing of substance that you're going to need that's not explained. This is its own thing
This book dives right into the action. The first chapter centers on Maeve who is attending a July 4th parade with her family. During the parade, a car crashes through a barricade and through the crowd. Maeve sees her friends and family run down and races to confront the man in the car. When he emerges from his car, he touches some other pedestrians and they immediately die. When Maeve brains the guy with a baseball bat, she accidentally touches him. She feels whatever was in him, rush into her and she flees into the nearby mountains to avoid hurting people. As the dust settles, black helicopters and people in hazmat suits invade the town. Clearly something shady is happening.
Ben Walker has messed up. No one wants anything to do with him. He works with DARPA as a weird stuff expert but he's on leave after his last mission. Suddenly, as he's taking his son on a trip, he's recalled to investigate the tragedy and to find Maeve. Walker is dropped into town just as quarantine is called locking down the town. Walker quickly discovers that he's not the only one looking for Maeve. What follows is a race against time to find Maeve, discover what's wrong with her, and how to stop it.
This is a must-read book in a must-read series for me but like I said above, you don't need to read the other books to enjoy this one. If that summary strikes your fancy, dive in here, you'll be fine. I love the characters in this book, especially Walker, who strikes a great tone of I don't really want to be here but I'm going to make the best of it and be a badass while I'm here. He's wicked smart and funny and you can tell that Golden really knows this character and has fun writing him. I also loved the "small town coming together to overcome the odds" feel that this book has. While the conflict in this book is on the larger scale the setting brings it back down to a personal level and that makes the experience truly special.
As for why it's not a five star read for me, there is a chunk of the book that I found boring and repetitive and while the rest of the book definitely made up for it, there was a small chunk of the book that I didn't enjoy as much. Small gripes but enough for me to knock off a star. This is absolutely a must-read for any fan of horror thrillers.