A touch too familiar
Red Hands offers pandemic premise with creepy twists
Have we reached the point where reality and horror fiction are too close for comfort? The premise of Christopher Golden's new book, Red Hands, is eerily resonant: A novel bio-pathogen is released upon an American town and turmoil ensues. The book, which features classic horror elements — shambling corpses, an ancient evil unleashed — is either creepily satisfying or a trigger for a nightmare.
The novel opens on the Fourth of July parade in Jericho Falls, N.H. To Maeve Sinclair, just shy of 30, it's a reminder that she's moving on to a new job in Boston. Her entire family is here: Maeve's amicably divorced parents; her younger brother, Logan; her sister, Rose; and Rose's girlfriend, Priya.
But before Maeve can say her farewells, a BMW careens onto Main Street, killing several revellers. Maeve's father, Ted, pushes Rose and Priya from its path before he slams into and over the car's hood. When Maeve rushes to his side, she finds him alive. Then Maeve witnesses something more horrific.
“Tim plants a hand, fingers splayed, on the driver's bloodied T-shirt. The driver reaches out and grabs Tim by the face, shoves him backward. As Tim takes one step back, Maeve is sure she sees the imprint of the driver's hand flare red on Tim's skin before it fades.”
Within seconds, Tim is dead. The driver staggers on through the street, grabbing onlookers, all of whom die in moments. When the driver lunges for a father and child, Maeve goes after him with a baseball bat. Unthinkingly, she grabs his wrist as he reaches for her throat. At her touch, the man perishes. Maeve does not, and her mother and brother run to her. As they embrace Maeve, both family members convulse and die, and Maeve sees the telltale red imprint of her hand on Logan's cheek.
Maeve flees into the neighbouring White Mountains to stay away from her surviving family members lest she unwittingly kill them, too. Unsure of what she's become, or why, Maeve grows debilitated by whatever has infected her.
Oscar Hecht — Patient Zero, the driver of the BMW — had been a scientist at a government-funded research facility. His job centred on Project: Red Hands, a tactile bacterium infection being developed as a bioweapon. For reasons that remain murky, Hecht injected the bacterium into himself, becoming the project's first human subject: one who was seemingly immune and a carrier, like Maeve.
Yet as Maeve begins to hear a voice inside her head, urging her to touch others, it becomes evident that she's been chosen as the virus' host, but by what? Millions have now viewed recordings of Hecht's attacks, and many are intent on tracking down Maeve.
Tautly written, Red Hands excels not just because of its scare factor, but also its humane depiction of grief, isolation and fear, growing mistrust of government and one's own neighbours.