Prince of Lost Places

Rating:
Summary: Expected more, but still a good read....
Review: After "the absence of nectar" I was curious about this writer. But if it wasn't for the 'shocker' towards the end (no, I am not going to spoil it), it would have been a little flat. So, all in all, good story (weird, yeah...but so was 'the absence of nectar'), lacked execution. It was more a second draft than the final manuscript, but still not to be missed. 3 1/2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: frenetic pace portrays a feeling of the madness.......
Review: Kathyh Hepinstall tells the tale of a mother, Martha, whose main concern in life is protecting her son, Duncan, from the evil possibilites of our society. When the death of a young girl, a friend of Duncan's occurs, Martha's concern for her son's safety causes her to flee to a remote location, a cave on the Rio Grande in order to protect him not only from the world's dangers but also from the "madness" she perceives the father, David, to suffer from. With each parent thinking that the other is crazy the story moves at a very fast, hectic pace, to an almost unnerving conclusion. I wish this story had been more developed, more in depth, but the frenetic pace portrays a feeling of the madness that envelopes the lives of this family and I believe that this is intentional by the author. Kathy Hepinstall has a unique penchant for the psychological thriller genre that she clearly displays in this short novel, leaving the reader to ponder the finale.

Rating:
Summary: Another great novel from kathy Hepinstall
Review: Prince of Lost Places by Kathy Hepinstall

Kathy Hepinstall's third novel, PRINCE OF LOST PLACES is a story of a young mother who takes her six-year old son away from his father and hides out in a cave in the deserts of south Texas, hoping to protect him from the dangers of the world. After a friend of her son's is tragically killed at school, Martha feels that the only way to protect Duncan from the same fate is to take him away from everything he knows, and hide out for the rest of their lives.

The novel opens with a conversation between the detective hired to search for Martha and Duncan, and David Warden, Martha's husband and Duncan's father. The reader learns that Martha and Duncan have just disappeared, and David is rightfully distraught. His main concern is that Martha is not well, is "delicate" and is "crazy".

The next scene takes us to a burning car, as Martha and her son stand by and watch. They are in the middle of a Texas desert, near the Mexican border, and are far away from their home in Ohio, where David is waiting for their return. She feels exhilarated as she watches the car go up in flames, and happy that her son trusts her. No one at home trusts her, she thinks, and they all think she is insane. She knows they are wrong. She feels that taking her son away from the others is the right thing to do. So, she and Duncan are now on their way in search of a cave in south Texas that she has learned about from a customer of hers at her flower shop. With only his information to go on, she and Duncan continue their trek towards the Mexican border.

Martha creates a new life for herself and Duncan inside this magical cave. Duncan misses his father but Martha soothes him by telling him that his daddy would meet them soon. Duncan soon stops asking about him, as life on the Rio Grande becomes a routine of exploring, fishing, swimming, and daily reading lessons. With enough rations for several months, Martha's only worries is that Duncan would learn that his mother had lied to him, and that David would eventually find them living in the cave.

However, instead of David finding them, the detective finds them first, and he lies to Martha, giving his name as Andrew, which happens to be her father's name, and as he gets to know her, he starts to fall in love with her. He stalls his return to civilization and David, and soon he too becomes a part of their every day lives.

THE PRINCE OF LOST PLACES was another enjoyable read by Kathy Hepinstall. Under 200 pages, it took me only a day to finish. As with her other books, I found that her style of writing comes close to being poetic in her use of words and style of exposition. The story line, however, was not as strong as with her other two books, HOUSE OF GENTLE MEN and ABSENCE OF NECTAR, but I still found this book worth reading, especially with the surprise ending. I would not recommend this to a first time reader of Hepinstall's works, but definitely read it after trying one of her other two novels first. Kathy Hepinstall is one of the more gifted writers I have read in the past few years, and am looking forward to finding out what she has in store for the reader in the near future.