NINE DAYS TO EVIL

Nine Days to Evil
by Nancy West
288 pages
ISBN: 0-9747705-0-7
Booklocker
February 16, 2004
$16.95

Meredith Laughlin is the typical doctor’s wife, except she has a desire to go back to school to further her education. However, things seldom go as planned.

Her husband, Conrad, uses his cell phone to call Meredith during a rain storm while he is to be visiting the rural clinics, and the call is cut off with the sounds of an accident.
Meredith attempts to call him back, but there is no answer. Logically, she contacts the police and eventually they do begin a search, but no one seems to know anything about the accident. There is no evidence of an accident, and the rural clinics were not expecting the doctor. Completely frazzled and confused, Meredith decides to continue with her goal and begins her graduate level classes then, as a distraction from her husband’s disappearance. She does continue to investigate his disappearance herself and to constantly persuade the police to look further and to continue the search.

The use of the Shakespeare play, “Othello” is excellent as well as the abnormal psychology class information of a psychopath vs. a sociopath. These are well-blended into the plot and are used throughout the book as a reference. The comparison to Meredith’s real life drama does resemble “Othello.”

The book is well-paced and a delightful quick suspense novel. It actually flowed and increased in intensity as it neared the ending. The mystery of the disappearance is very believable and could even be based upon a real event.

There was a problem with the introduction of one of the more influential characters, Agatha. I had a problem with meeting a character at a graduate class and instantaneously becoming lifelong friends. That just doesn’t seem natural to me. This was the main error and I felt the relationship was very forced as if the author didn’t know how to continue and the character of Agatha would solve the problem. Also, I had a problem with Agatha’s coincidental relationship with the detective, Sam Vandehoven. It was just too neat and tidy, too much.

The title did not really fit the novel. With Nine Days to Evil, I expected a huge climatic evil event to happen on the ninth day. It didn’t. Many deceptive and nasty things happened on the days preceding the ninth day. The ninth day was the resolution, not the climax.

I am concerned about the availability of this book. Neither Amazon or Barnes and Noble have it listed as of today, nor did Booklocker. Yes, I did receive an Advanced Reader Copy, but these are always at least listed in the retail book market.

According to information provided by the author, Nancy Glass West is a Texas author who was recently a guest poet on “Theme and Variations” which aired on National Public Radio.