The Cold One

The lives of a journalist, a researcher into near-death experiences, a playboy, an upper-crust high-school student, and a mourning widower are irrevocably changed by an evil force that seeks to destroy humankind. 40,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo. Tour.

From Publishers Weekly

Known for his bestselling young-adult horror fiction, Pike crossed over to adult fiction with The Season of Passage (1992). Here, he brings his considerable-albeit unevenly applied-skills to bear on a murky, labyrinthine tale of betrayal, unearthly romance and demonic slaughter. After a prologue introduces the Cold One, an emotionless, destructive entity born into alluring female human form, a flurry of subplots converge to set the main story in motion. Peter Jacobs, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, receives a phone call from a man who identifies himself as the perpetrator of a recent series of murders. Julie Moore, a Ph.D. candidate studying near-death experiences, is drawn into the case when she meets Dr. Lawrence Morray, a celebrated cardiologist who, 30 years earlier, abruptly abandoned his own study of NDEs. Then Govinda Sharma, a backsliding Hindu, is directed by his guru to pursue the 5000-year-old Rak, a legendary blind humanoid who has escaped from the Himalayan cave to which he was exiled by Krishna. Much gory violence and graphic sex ensue, broken by spasms of mawkish prose and intricate explanations of the origin of the Cold One, leading to a dramatic ending to this fitfully hypnotic but disjointed novel that posits the advent of a titanically destructive force into the world-and a promised sequel, The Cold One II: Seedling. Major ad/promo; author tour. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

An evil spirit cloaked in beauty corrupts all who encounter it in this latest adult horror thriller, the first in a series by popular YA author Pike.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The latest novel by the popular Pike follows a fairly conventional horror scenario. An ancient, supernatural, and evil entity (the titular figure) is loosed on the world, kills a number of sympathetic characters (and a few others as well), and is finally challenged by the survivors. This book is the first of three volumes, which suggests that the multivolume saga, having put sf and fantasy under its sway, is muscling its way into horror. Horrors! That kvetch recorded, it must be said that Pike continues to justify his reputation. He is a master of emotional impact supported by setting, and his characterization meets the basic requirement of making one care about what happens to his people, and then some. This one will have an audience, and its sequels will probably deserve one, too. Roland Green

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