Monday, February 1, 2016

Hanover House by Brenda Novak – A Book Review

Hanover House is the prequel to a new series about psychiatrist Evelyn Talbot, who has devoted her life to the study of psychopaths as a result of having been kidnapped and tortured at the age of 16. Her assailant, her high school boyfriend, has never been apprehended.  To fight back, she wants to learn the cause of psychopathy and hopes to prevent others from experiencing what she has endured.


The prequel sets the stage for the series that will be set in the small town of Hilltop, Alaska about an our outside Anchorage, where the government has agreed to build a facility for her and her team of mental health professionals to study the most heinous of convicted psychopaths.  The locals do not want a prison full of psychopaths in their midst – but they need the jobs the facility will provide. It will no doubt be an interesting series.

I like that the book focused on the resilience of Evelyn Talbot in addition to her residual post-traumatic stress syndrome. The characterizations seem solid with the protagonists reacting realistically.  The high school serial killer also makes an appearance.


I’m intrigued enough to look forward to the initial episode in the series titled Her Darkest Nightmare, which is to be released by St. Martin’s Press in September 2016. That being said I didn’t love the prose. The language was a bit too “Dick & Jane” simple for me to feel joy.

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