Gilded Needles by Michael McDowell.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

A while ago, I read my first Michael McDowell novel, and was pleasantly surprised. The plaudits heaped upon the (now deceased) novelist (and Beetlejuice scriptwriter) were truthful, and his strain of subdued horror enchanted me.

So it’s interesting that the second title I’ve read features none of the author’s  signature supernatural forces at all. The evil and machination within Gilded Needles are all resolutely human, and are knotted around a basic drive: for revenge. (more…)