Overview
Peter Van Zandt, a professor of archaeology at a small liberal arts school north of Boston, makes a discovery that could boost his career ... or destroy him. Mourning the death of his beautiful wife, Linda, and attempting to be a good father to his six-year-old son, Andy, Peter is hired to excavate a potentially remarkable early American archaeological site on an island in Boston Harbor where a new casino resort is to be built. Workers have unearthed the remains of a peculiar stone edifice, perhaps Celtic in origin, but Peter and his team of young volunteers have little time to determine its significance before construction begins. As they uncover a circle of stones eerily reminiscent of Stonehenge, Peter finds himself assaulted by disturbing visions of his young son with his throat slashed, the burning of an accused witch at a stake, and a woman who seems to be his wife calling him from beyond. Peter leads the excavation at a frantic pace, discovering a skeleton that could be the witch from his dreams. Soon the lines between this world and the next begin to blur, until finally Peter is convinced that it is his wife, Linda, who beckons him from the other side. He will do anything to be with her again, even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice at the stone circle.Editorials
Roanoke Times
Watch out Stephen King! Gary Goshgarian hos taken your incredibly successful formula and made it work as skillfully for him as it does for you.Publishers Weekly -
The archeologist hero of this supernatural thriller is adept at unearthing historical mysteries, but his capabilities are not enough to excavate the plot from the clichs that Goshgarian (Rough Beast) has heaped upon it. Peter Van Zandt is trying to ease the pain of his wife Linda's tragic death when he accepts an assignment to excavate on Kingdom Head, an island in Boston Harbor being developed as a resort. He is temporarily distracted from his grief by the discovery of a Stonehenge-like site that suggests a pre-Columbian colony in America, but disembodied voices and dream messages convince Peter that Linda has led him here to effect her resurrection. In the heat of professional and personal obsession, Peter is unaware that he is being manipulated by the spirit of Brigid Mocnessa, a descendant of the sixth-century Druid clan that settled the island, and that his growing hostility toward his six-year-old son, Andy, is pushing him to fulfill Brigid's scheme for a blood sacrifice that will revive the island's pagan heritage. Goshgarian builds suspense credibly, with complications that include Peter's race against a clock set by greedy land developers. But he undermines his efforts with hoary plot contrivances, including coincidental discoveries and a cast of secondary characters who exist solely as foils for Peter's behavior. There is no satisfactory explanation of why Brigid, whose residue has imbued the island for more than three centuries, chooses now to exercise her powers, or why Peter, a hardcore materialist, should suddenly acquiesce in the mystical. Although Goshgarian layers his narrative with rich strata, its potential remains buried. (Sept.)Library Journal
Peter Van Zand, an archaeologist, takes six-year-old son Andy on a summertime "dig" on Kingdom Head, an island in Boston Harbor, hoping that together they can recover from the violent death of Connie, Peter's wife and Andy's mother. Peter is directing a crew in assessing the historical meanings of huge stones uncovered by construction workers excavating to build a casino on the island. The stones, on part of the island called Pulpit's Point, seem prehistoric to Peter, who is troubled by violent dreams of Andy's death, of a woman burning at a stake, and of Connie calling to him from the grave. Those around him question Peter's sanity, and Andy is suddenly terrified of his formerly loving father. But the woman burned on Kingdom Head in 1692 never seems evil enough to bring about the book's concluding events, nor does the present-day "bad guy," Fane Hatcher, seem bad enough to cause the island's longtime evil history to boil over into modern times. Still, overall, this is a good purchase for libraries wanting more reads like King, Saul, and Koontz.Alice DiNizo, Raritan P.L., N.J.Kirkus Reviews
The author of Rough Beast (1995) combines Amerindian and Celtic mythology in a thriller that would put Joseph Campbell to sleep.Goshgarian creates the islands of Kingdom Head and Shepherd's Island in Boston Harbor. When one of Boston's wealthiest citizens, young E. Fane Hatcher, decides to build condominiums, hotels, restaurants, shops, tennis courts, a golf course, a casino, and marinas on the islands, he hires Professor Peter Van Zandt, an archaeologist, to find the lost Hatcher family chapel on Kingdom Head. Already uncovered are three very mysterious large limestone slabs, which may tie in with the chapel. Peter's work is made more difficult by the fact that while he's trying to explore the island's past, he's also fleeing from his own. Three years earlier, following an argument about their son Andy, Peter's wife Linda was burned to death in an automobile wreck, a horror for which Peter blames himself. Now, the weird mood of Kingdom Head—the appearance of phantoms that seem to threaten Peter's six-year-old Andy; the discovery of an underground death chamber; Peter's seeming invasion by aggressive spirits who demand that he hurt those he most loves (even during sex); and his horrifying dreams that involve past events on the island—all contribute to his growing confusion and fear. The ancient Hannah Mac Ness saves him from drowning but then threatens his life and damns him for digging up tunnels and land that she and her forebears have lived on for centuries. Her Celtic ancestors, she says, came to Kingdom Head a thousand years before the Mayflower and worshipped the Druidic stone slabs Peter is attempting to remove and study. Hatcher, anxious to move his project ahead, announces that he's going to blow up the stones, and Peter finds himself battling his ex-employer, as well as his own demons, in an attempt to prove that an American Stonehenge exists.
A richly conceived work that's largely buried under melodrama.