The landscape of Winter Tides
is full of poetry. The story itself is a literary ghost story like Night
Relics, a tale of malevolent emotion from the past seeking a receptive
agent in the present. Here, though, the theme is envy and the deadly rivalries
between siblings. Dave Quinn once rescued Anne Morris from drowning, but
failed to save her twin sister Elinor. Now the two of them struggle against
Elinor and her all-too-receptive ally, Edmund, the pyschopathic son of
their boss, while the theatre for which they both work, the Duke of Gloucester,
mounts a production of King Lear (which someone ought to stage
in the real world). Anne and Dave are very likable, active heroes, and
as usual, Blaylock's complex villains are disturbingly credible.
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