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    The Burn Palace
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    The Burn Palace
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    The Burn Palace
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Burn Palace

    Written by Stephen Dobyns

    Narrated by George Newbern

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    At two-thirty in the morning at the local hospital in the small town of Brewster, Rhode Island, Alice Alessio is given the surprise of her life. Coming back from a secret tryst with a doctor, she peeks in to check on the newborn baby she was supposed to be watching, and finds a huge, writhing red-and-yellow snake in the bassinet instead. So begins the series of strange and disturbing events that start to plague this community and confound the police. Woody Potter, the detective on the case, simply can't put it all together - what is the thread that ties a missing baby, a dead insurance investigator, and a local Wiccan sect together? Why do all roads seem to lead to the town yoga center?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateAug 26, 2013
    ISBN9781624064364
    Unavailable
    The Burn Palace
    Author

    Stephen Dobyns

    Stephen Dobyns is the author of eleven novels and six books of poetry. Born in New Jersey in 1941, he attended Shimer College, Wayne State University, and the University of Iowa. His most recent novels include Saratoga Bestiary and The Two Deaths of Senora puccini. Concurring Beasts, his first book of poems, was chosen the Lamont Poetry Selection for 1971. Black Dog, Red Dog was a selection of the National Poetry Series in 1984. Stephen Dobyns has taught courses on poetry and writing at many colleges and universities and is currently a professor of English at Syracuse University

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    Reviews for The Burn Palace

    3.5/5

    63 ratings12 reviews

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    • 3/5
      "I think I'll read some fiction next," my spouse said at dinner tonight. He'd just finished reading A First-Rate Madness and was looking for a break from nonfiction."Well, the book I just finished was pretty good," I offered.Our seven-year-old chimed in. "Oh, The Burn Palace?" he asked. "The one with the snake on it?"I confirmed that he'd remembered the title---and cover art---correctly. "Yes. It was good, but it wasn't edifying."And that's just how I think of this novel. It was fun to read and took a direction that was more satisfying than the one it seemed like it was going to take. It deals with the ways in which our assumptions cloud our vision to reality and cause us to make unwise decisions, which was interesting, but I'm not sure much of the novel is going to stick with me for long.Of course, it's not always necessary to be edified by the books we read, but I prefer it if I am. Being entertained at the same time I am spiritually and/or intellectually improved satisfies me. It feels like multi-tasking. This novel was more uni-tasking. It also provides a biased, unflattering, and inaccurate view of individuals with mental illness. Sure, not all of the homicidal characters are mentally ill, but the only mentally ill character is homicidal---and rather gratuitously so, plot-wise. Given that those with mental illness are no more likely to be violent criminals than those not diagnosed with mental illness, this characterization seems biased and inaccurate to me.
    • 5/5
      This is not at all the type of book I normally read, but it received such great advance notice that I had to try it. And then once I started, I had to finish. A slight warning that there is some creepy stuff in here-also some things that never quite got explained, at least not to me. I liked the accurate description of the small town and the various characters in it; I did think, however, that a little more about some of them would have been helpful. it also got a little confusing keeping all of the law enforcement people straight, as well as some of the story threads. I would definitely recommend it to readers who appreciate mystery with some horror.
    • 5/5
      LOVED this book! Dobyns' debut novel is a mix of police procedural/mystery/paranormal/horror. Which is just my cup of tea. The novel opens as a baby is discovered missing from the maternity ward. In the baby's place is a snake. Astonishingly, the baby's mother is not concerned about her missing baby, and, in fact, insists it's the devil's baby. The novel moves along at a quick pace and we are led into a police case that may or may not involve satanic ritual, murder and suicide. Also, the characters were fantastic. I especially loved the two young boys at the center of the story, one of whom has telekinetic powers. This book reminded me a lot of Stephen King's early books. I would high recommend it!
    • 4/5
      Stephen Dobyns is such a good author. His depictions of small town America are dead on.The Burn Palace a dark , twisty mystery. Although promoted as a supernatural horror novel, in truth this novel is more of an old fashioned police procedural. The town of Brewster is under siege. A newborn disappears from the hospital and is replaced by a snake. Carl Krause has just gone plain mad, actually growling at people.There are reports of coyotes acting out of character.A girl reports rape, then disappears.On top of all that, there are rumors of wild Wiccan parties, Satanism, and shapeshifters.As the town teeters on the edge of panic, vandalism attacks start to occur.The horror in Brewster is very real. This is the stuff nightmares are made of. The events that unfold in the small town of Brewster boggles the mind.Greed, ambitions, lust, small town politics, desperation and loneliness cause folks to make very regrettable choices.The nine day span of events brought out the best and the worst in human nature.Again, the literary style is matched with a good old fashioned mystery. Again, Dobyns pulls it off wonderfully.Over all this one gets an AThis is an ARC copy from Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      Compulsively readable mystery with great characters. Life in a small town is as much a character as any of the principles.
    • 5/5
      The review on the back of this book (by Stephen King, no less!) is completely accurate! This is a great read! Spooky as heck, with lots of great plot twists, characters, and creepiness! It starts when a child goes missing from a hospital nursery and in it's place is a big ol' corn snake! Then an out-of-towner gets scalped! And then it gets really crazy! Witches, Satan worship, a boy with telekinetic powers, and packs of coyotes roam through this town, and novel, and really stir up the story! And it all starts with Nurse Spandex...
    • 4/5
      I am always leery of books that are highly praised by Stephen King. I usually very much enjoy Stephen King books, but until this book, I have never liked a book he heaped high praise on. The Burn Palace is not like most books, in that it doesn't fit into one genre, or category. It is darkly funny, often times disturbing, it blends mystery with horror, and touches on philosophy and religion. From the first chapter the reader is given loads of detail about the town of Brewster where the story takes place, so much detail that you often times feel as though you are observing the events in the book as they take place. The book has lots of death, crazed wolves, crazy townsfolk, and some less than healthy relationship issues. That being said it was a very enjoyable book to read.
    • 4/5
      I don't remember how I first heard about this book, but the first thing I noticed was the gigantic blurb on the back of the book from Stephen King that included this little gem: "If ever there was a novel that demonstrates why this mode of entertainment remains healthy and vital more that 150 years after Charles Dickens did his thing, The Burn Palace is that book. It is, simply put, the embodiment of why we read stories, and why the novel will always be a better bang for the entertainment buck than movies or TV. Great story, great prose. Musical prose. You can't ask for more than this book gives."High praise indeed. Maybe it was because of this quote that I went into the novel with Stephen King & small-town horror at the forefront of my mind, but at any rate, I felt like I was reading a slightly experimental version of 'Salem's Lot. Which was pretty cool, and slightly strange, because it wasn't a perfect comparison.At the beginning of the novel, a baby is kidnapped from a small Rhode Island hospital and replaced with a large snake. Coyotes are out roaming the streets. Strange deaths that seem to be linked with local witches & Satanists. And in the midst of this murder and seemingly paranormal mayhem is a police force who is desperately trying to make sense of the seemingly disjointed occurrences. In other words, it's a strong mix of small-town horror and police procedural, with a little bit of experimental writing thrown in.For the most part, it works. Occasionally the prose becomes a little too stylized, but it's easy enough to overlook. One of the biggest selling points for me was how detailed the setting was, which is one of my favorite things about Stephen King's novels, especially his earlier writing.The novel starts off slowly and very gradually ramps up the tension until about the half way point, when the story really starts to pick up. I've suggested this book a couple times to patrons at the library, and I always tell them ahead of time that the story takes a little bit to really get going, but it picks up about halfway through.Even though this isn't classified as straight-up horror, there are hints of the supernatural with mention of demonic worship and shape shifters. Although there's some ambiguity with whether or not the activity really is supernatural, the creepiness pervades every chapter, and the information about how bodies are cremated is delightfully gruesome.Readalikes:'Salem's Lot - Stephen King. The Burn Palace doesn't have any vampires, but the setting and gradual sense of horror is very similar. Both novels even have intermittent chapters where the narration feels like it's giving the reader a literal bird's eye view of the town.Ghost Road Blues - Jonathan Maberry. Another small town thrown into disarray by the presence of something incredibly dark and evil. The tones are very similar, but Ghost Road Blues is distinctly classified as supernatural horror.If you enjoy horror with experimental prose, you might try The Devil in Silver by Victor Lavalle or Breed by Chase Novak.If you enjoy suspenseful novels where the line between the normal and the paranormal is blurred, you might try Help for the Haunted by John Searles or Night Film by Marisha Pessl. (Note that Night Film has a much more experimental structure and feels more like a hardboiled detective novel than anything else.)
    • 4/5
      The Burn Palace begins with a maternity nurse discovering that one of the newborns in her care has disappeared and has been replaced by a six-foot corn snake, and it just gets wilder from there. Dobyns brings in a huge case of characters, residents of the fictional small town of Brewster, Rhode Island, as well as renegade coyotes, mysterious Satanists, and a rampaging lunatic to terrify them all. But at the heart of a story is a mystery, and State Trooper Woody Potter doggedly pursues the solution while reminding us that it's all about the baby.Dobyns juggles his cast of characters gracefully, giving us readers time to get to know the various cops, kids, town characters, and even dogs that populate Brewster, so we can better care about their safety as things start ramping up. His omniscient narrator relates the story with a folksy voice, almost as if he's sitting beside us and whispering in our ear. The petty politics and soap opera-like relationships of small-town life gradually take on sinister undertones as the plot unravels. It became very difficult to put the book down once all the pieces start whirling together. This was a fun and thrilling read, reminiscent of Dobyns' The Church of Dead Girls or one of Stephen King's small-town tales. For me, the only major flaw was the hint of magical realism, never fully explained or incorporated fully into the overall story. But that is more than made up for by Dobyns' characters, setting, and audacious plot. This was a birthday gift, reminding me again that Stephen Dobyns is one of my most-neglected favorite authors (2014).
    • 4/5
      A baby is missing from the maternity ward, a snake is left in the empty crib. If that isn't enough to make you want to read the book how about the mother believing her baby is a devil or a man found dead in his car and a teenager disappears, the shape the corpse is in when found is enough to make your skin crawl. Oh, I can't forget the wolves invading the town! This a dark read, full of mysteries and weirdness. If you like Stephen King you'll probably like this novel. I give it 4 stars.
    • 3/5
      Wasn't sure where this novel was headed and I think it started with more promise than it delivered by the end.
      Mostly a small town cop mystery. With an endorsement from Stephen King, I was prepared to slam it shut, if it got too 'scary'. A few paragraphs got close, mostly with the animal characters. (Have never read a King novel or movie - I'm too chicken!)
      Maybe a few too many characters and didn't get quite enough time with the main characters to develop them as much as possible.
      Some of the secondary characters were more interesting and a good cross-section of small town personalities.
      It's an easy, quick read and enough plot to make it enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      THE BURN PALACE is a book that any lover of mysteries/thrillers doesn’t want to miss. Several mysteries are going on at the same time, all in and around one small townWhat happened to a newborn baby kidnapped from a hospital?What is the significance of a snake in the baby’s place?Why was a man scalped and who did it?Why does the mother of the kidnapped baby hate him?Why does this small town suddenly have a problem with cougers prowling the area and attacking humans?Why are old people suddenly dying at a greater rate?And more mysteries continue throughout. Stephen Dobyns skillfully brings them all together and solves each one.However, be prepared for an overly long book. It could use more editing to eliminate a few redundancies. An even greater challenge to the reader is Dobyns’s use of SO MANY characters. I literally had to use a yellow highlighter to mark each new character name so I could leaf back a few pages when I needed a refresher of who was who.