Shade of Pale

Manhattan psychiatrist Jukes Wahler has his hands full trying to track down his sister, who has disappeared with her abusive boyfriend, an associate of a known Irish terrorist, but by the time he finds the terrorist, Wahl is confronting the deadly and ancient power of a banshee.

Amazon.com Review

Songwriter/musician Greg Kihn got deservedly great notices for his first thriller, Horror Show, a delightfully nasty parody of the Hollywood schlock scene, and he should have a similar success with Shade of Pale. As psychiatrist Jukes Wahler searches the darker streets of New York for his missing sister and her abusive fashion photographer boyfriend, he encounters a devilish crew of Irish terrorists and Celtic ghosts. Like his hit songs Jeopardy and Breakup Song, Kihn's prose is pungent, pithy, and rich with buried meanings.

From Library Journal

Psychiatrist Jukes Wahler has just seen a banshee?the mythical Irish female grim reaper. He is not alone in his sighting; a patient, DeClan Loomis, has also seen her. So begins this new thriller from Kihn (Horror Show, LJ 6/1/96). The banshee has crossed the ocean to seek out those who victimize others. She is the avenger of wronged women, and the latest New York strangler is at the top of her hit list. Meanwhile, Wahler's sister, Cathy, who enjoys being victimized, is missing, and Padriac O'Connor, an Irish terrorist, seeks the banshee for his own twisted purposes. Not enough? Throw in a psychic police officer and a beautiful scholar of Irish mythology and you have Kihn's second novel. Despite the predictable plot and two-dimensional characters, it's fast-paced and entertaining. Recommended for larger public libraries.?Georgia Panos, Johnson Cty. Lib. System, Leawood, Kan.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Ex-rock-and-roll star Kihn's first novel, Horror Show (1996), was a romp based on the satirical film Ed Wood. This time out, he deals with the Banshee, the Irish angel of death, also sometimes regarded as the avenging angel of wronged womanhood. Through a restaurant window, Manhattan shrink Jukes Wahler has himself seen the Banshee, the most beautiful woman on earth. Soon after, a new patient, Declan Loomis, a paranoid, comes for comforting: He, too, has seen the Banshee and asks Wahler to help him die. Wahler, of course, attempts to talk Loomis out of his crazy idea--but not long after, Loomis turns up dead, having been murdered in a particularly grisly fashion. And he's not the only one. The week before, Wahler discovers, Brendan Killian (a radical poet from Ireland) died in the same manner, his body seemingly destroyed by an explosion. Meanwhile, Wahler's sister Cathy has been beaten to a pulp yet again by her vicious fashion photographer boyfriend, Bobby Sudden, who hangs around with Irish terrorist Padraic O'Connor--another who has seen the Banshee and is convinced that he will die. Bobby beats up Wahler, abducts Cathy, and Wahler reports him. But reluctant police see only a lovers' quarrel. Wahler then goes off to see Fiona Rice, a professor of Irish mythology, who fills him in on the Banshee. Is it running amok in Manhattan? By this time, Bobby has got Cathy strung out on heroin. He also, as it happens, likes to kill whores and take snuff photos of their mutilated bodies, to the accompaniment of Procol Harum's recording of ``A Whiter Shade of Pale.'' O'Connor, pretending to be a private detective, visits Wahler and tells him he'll find Cathy for him if Wahler will find the Banshee in return, in hopes that Wahler can help him get off the hook with the ferocious angel. Before Wahler can act, though, the Banshee comes calling on Bobby. Less original but better told than Horror Show. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Greg Kihn is a drive-time disk jockey for KFOX radio in San Francisco.

Reviews

News