 The balance between science and the supernatural was nicely handled, with much of the former being presented in the first two thirds of the book and then evolving into a different direction in the final third. The prolific Christopher Golden returns with the third book in the ‘Ben Walker’ series which began in 2017 with Ararat and was followed in 2019 with The Pandora Room. I had read the former, which I enjoyed, but not the sequel and did not feel I lost a huge amount as the stories are clearly standalone thrillers, which take in the supernatural. This is nicely balanced with science, secret agencies, action, and a heavy dollop of the unexplained. Ararat is a supernatural spin on the discovery of what scientists believe to be Noah’s Arc in a remote part of Turkey with the sequel concerning the discovery of an underground city which after the initial excitement leads to a world of pain. Main character Ben Walker connects the books; he is best described as a ‘weird science expert’ who is the go-to-guy whenever the government uncovers something unsavoury, sinister, otherworldly, or unexplainable. The government do not call Ghostbusters, 999, or 911, they call this Ben Walker dude whom you might compare to a modern-day Indiana Jones because of his unusual skill set. When Red Hands opens Ben is about to take his son away for a weekend camping and the usual 999 call comes in and he is forced to drop everything and goes running. Tough luck on the distraught little boy. There are several obscure government bodies mentioned in this novel and on this occasion, he finds himself employed by the Global Science Research Coalition, which featured in the earlier stories. Why does Ben Walker get the 999 call? Red Hands has a terrific opening, which unfortunately it failed to maintain this high level of intrigue for the duration of a novel which was just a tad too long. Ultimately, keeping most of the story restricted to a remote mountain area stopped the action from going wild or truly apocalyptical. We head to the small town of Jericho Falls and a July 4th parade where a car ploughs through the shocked crowd, deliberately killing many people. The driver exits the car and touches as many of the crowd as he possibly can, others retaliate and attack him, which they quickly regret. Within seconds everybody he touches dies, except for a young woman called Mae Sinclair, whose hands slowly turn red. Distraught, in mourning as family members are amongst the casualties, and realising she is infected, goes on the run and flees into the local mountains. Mae is struggling with her own grief, confusion, and the dawning realization that she might not be able to touch another human being again and tries to come to grip with the infection, which was one of the stronger strands of the novel. The story never strays far from this mountain and I found this slightly underwhelming, the author obviously decided to keep Ben Walker’s investigation local and it never becomes a worldwide pandemic, which might have been interesting, but would have obviously drastically changed the shape of the novel. As Red Hands develops it takes in beefs between different government organisations, soldiers, mercenaries, and all the paranoia you might expect in the discovery of a powerful bioweapon which everybody wants to get their hands on. Although there are many characters in the story, most of the military types come across as rather samey and one dimensional, but Mae Sinclair and her family were nicely drawn and keep the plot moving forward. Also, considering the series bears the name of Ben Walker his character was not engaging enough to carry the novel and even though he was no slouch lacked the same deadliness or wise cracking humour as Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger, who has starred in over ten novels which are not dissimilar to this. Comparing Red Hands with Maberry’s special-ops superhero is worth doing as they tread the same ground; although Walker is not a soldier, he possesses many of the same skill’s as Ledger, but Joe was infinitely more likeable. By the time I got to the end of Red Hands, considering this is book three, I thought the character development of Walker was very limited and for the series to progress your main character must grow. Thinking back, I remember precious little about him and so the book could have done with a stronger lead. The balance between science and the supernatural was nicely handled, with much of the former being presented in the first two thirds of the book and then evolving into a different direction in the final third. Connected to that, those who are infected feel a need to pass the disease on as it grows stronger, this internal conflict or hunger, was very nicely portrayed via Mea Sinclair who is being hunted and the main carrier of the infection. I liked Mea and she was sympathetically drawn and pleasant company as her life quickly spiralled horribly out of control. Red Hands was solid entertainment, however, there is a lot of this type of fiction around and although it was an easy enough read, I found it slightly jaded and dreamt of what else could have been done with the ‘red hand’ virus other than isolate a young woman on a mountain in the middle of nowhere where the damage she could inflict was relatively limited. Review by Tony Jones  In bestselling author Christopher Golden's supernatural thriller Red Hands, sometimes a story is a warning. Sometimes the warning comes too late When a mysterious and devastating bioweapon causes its victims to develop Red Hands, the touch of death, weird science expert Ben Walker is called to investigate. A car plows through the crowd at a July 4th parade. The driver climbs out, sick and stumbling, reaching out...and everyone he touches drops dead within seconds. Mae Sinclair watches in horror as people she loves begin to die and she knows she must take action. But in the aftermath of this terror, it's Mae Sinclair who possesses that killing touch. Fleeing into the mountains, Mae is struggling with her own grief, confusion, and the dawning realization that she will never be able to touch another human being again. Weird s**t expert" Ben Walker is surprised to get a call from Alena Boudreau, director of the newly restructured Global Science Research Coalition. There's an upheaval in the organization and she needs to send someone she can trust to Jericho Falls. Whoever finds Mae Sinclair first will unravel the mystery of her death touch, and many are willing to kill her for that secret. Walker's assignment is to get her off the mountain alive. But as Mae searches for a safe hiding place, hunted and growing sicker by the moments, she begins to hear an insidious voice in her head, and the yearning, the need... the hunger to touch another human being continues to grow. When Walker and Mae meet at last, they will unravel a stunning legacy of death and betrayal, and a malignant secret as old as history.   Comments are closed.
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