The Girl in the Moon

Bestseller Goodkind (the Sword of Truth epic fantasy series) borrows a concept from one of his lesser works, 2016’s Nest, in which characters could identify killers simply by seeing their images in photographs. In this subpar thriller, characters can identify killers by looking in their eyes. Angela Constantine, who survived a horrific childhood, uses this ability to take revenge on men who victimize women, sadistically slaughtering them before dumping their remains and any incriminating evidence in a deep pit in the basement of her home near New York’s Finger Lakes. The graphic descriptions of violence are often stomach-churning and add nothing to the story. That Angela is later recruited to fight terrorists and forestall a nuclear attack doesn’t enhance the book’s plausibility. Despite Angela’s tragic backstory, she’s a singularly repellent lead, and Goodkind doesn’t help matters with lackluster prose (“She was the unexpected, the unanticipated, the fly in their ointment. She was imbalance in their perfect equation of evil”). Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary. (Mar.)