The Killing Gift by Bari Wood

 

(pb; 1975)

From the inside flap

“Everyone whispered there was something strange and ominous about Jennifer─that she had no real friends, scared people off somehow. But that was probably just jealous gossip, for Jennifer had everything other people coveted─beauty, money, success.

“Yet frightening things did seem to happen around her. Objects fell and should have broken─but didn’t. And when people displeased Jennifer, when lovers made her angry, she became possessed by a power she could neither see nor hear. All sound was swallowed. The air became heavier and heavier. And her deadly energy unleashed an evil so impossible it could not believed. But it must.”

 

Review

Gift is a good, entertaining, goreless and off-beat read. Wood takes what often winds up being a character-sketched, focus-on-horror-thrills genre storyline and─for the most part─turns it into a better-told, deep-character-paced novel that could easily appeal to readers beyond the horror/supernatural genre. Jennifer Gilbert and homicide detective David Stavitsky are especially well-written, relatable characters.

Gift would’ve been excellent if it had been better paced, with Stavitsky spending less time waffling about how to deal with Jennifer Gilbert’s terrifying powers, but the third-act lag-time scenes aren’t a fatal flaw. The end-twist, well-foreshadowed and character-true, is excellent though, and Gift is an impressive book, especially when one considers it’s Wood’s first novel.