15 ENTRIES:

In every way, 'Pyres' succeeds
"...As a debut, "Pyres" is a triumph. Nikitas has the rare ability to create three-dimensional characters and put them into believable situations, and still make a page-turner out of it.
Nikitas is after dark truths, and he has the skills to unearth them, leaving the reader breathless and hoping for more from this powerful new voice."
   John Keenan, for the Omaha World Herald

Derek Nikitas' 'Pyres' pops with intensity from its shocker start
"...Derek Nikitas' first novel, Pyres (St. Martin's Minotaur; 308 pages; $24.95), is aggressively touted as a literary thriller, and the 32-year-old Nikitas is being heralded in some quarters as heir apparent to Joyce Carol Oates..."Pyres" deserves to be discovered by as many people as possible...Nikitas renders his story with just the right balance of style, detail, pace, depth and humor, building a suspenseful narrative that reaches a genuinely painful level of heartache."
   Eddie Muller, for the San Francisco Chronicle

"...If one word could sum up the mood of "Pyres," it would be a term used by the Stockholm-born folklore professor early in the novel: Svarmod -- the Swedish word for "that cozy gloom that hits you like semiconscious dreams on a winter night." A tapestry of intertwining plot threads and multilayered motifs -- specifically Scandinavian mythology -- Nikitas' stellar first novel isn't just one of the best genre debuts of the year, it's one of the best releases -- period."
   Paul Goat Allen, for the Chicago Tribune

"Part whodunnit, part horror story, with a pinch of the supernatural, Nikitas's debut novel is not your average mystery. It's the tale of three women: Luc (pronounced "Luke") Moberg, a 15-year-old girl who wears black and occasionally shoplifts for fun; Tanya Yasbeck, a very pregnant 19-year-old from the street who hopes her boyfriend's motorcycle gang membership will lead to a better life; and Greta Hurd, a divorced, middle-aged homicide detective on the outs with her soon-to-be-married daughter. When a trip to the mall ends in Luc's father being murdered, the three threads of the story begin to intertwine, and by the end, each character gets pushed to the limits of her being. This is a genre-stretching narrative where the bad guys are human, the good guys are flawed, and rescue arrives late if at all. It is also literary, gripping, and very real; Nikitas captures the voices of his three female protagonists with compelling accuracy. While this book may not appeal to readers of formulaic crime fiction, it is recommended for both public and academic libraries. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 6/1/07; Joyce Carol Oates nominated Nikitas for a Pushcart Award in 2005.—Ed.]"
   Nancy Fontaine, Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, NH for Library Journal

"A harrowing debut novel. . . .The prose is admirable, the mood pure Ingmar Bergman. Proceed with caution."
    The Kirkus Review

"This is a polished first novel. Nikitas skillfully illuminates the many aspects of a number of significant characters and propels the plot with apparent ease. . . . A heartbreaking coming-of-age story and a gripping psychological thriller."
    Thomas Gaughan, for Booklist

"Short story writer Nikitas fills his engaging, atmospheric first novel, set in upstate New York, with Swedish mythology and American carnage. . . . Fans of Joyce Carol Oates, who provides a blurb, will in particular enjoy this unrelentingly dark and brutal novel with its ironic twists.”
   Publisher’s Weekly

"I've long been an admirer of Derek Nikitas's unusually engaging, subtly rendered short fiction.... Any subject Derek handles, channeled through the lens of his unique sensibility, is likely to be of unusual worth and interest."
   Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee; Author of The Gravedigger's Daughter

"Pyres is an utterly absorbing heartbreaker. It also takes a hard look at the dark side of the modern American family, from trailer park to university campus, and the unlikely roads that connect the two. If you think you had a tough time turning 16—trust me, it's nothing compared to what Pyres's heroine, Lucia Moberg, has to endure. Derek Nikitas has written a blazing debut, and I'm looking forward to whatever he writes next."
     Duane Swierczynski, author of Severance Package

"Derek owes me a night’s sleep... Loved it! My God how [Pyres], excuse the pun, burned me, in all the best ways…. just took my battered heart and crushed it to smithereens…. It revived me, hurt me, and most of all, invigorated me…. The writing is to roar for and loud and triumphant. Just a marvelous, wondrous book!"
      Ken Bruen, Shamus Award winner and author of American Skin

"A fever dream and a waking nightmare—a hypnotic, sophisticated descent into hell. Nikitas is the heir apparent to Joyce Carol Oates."
      Marcus Sakey, author of The Blade Itself

"Nikitas’s story is literary and smart. His effortless prose and genre-melding style is reminiscent of John Connolly, his ability to tap into the disturbed teenage psyche as masterful as Lisa Carey. Pyres is a must read. I couldn’t put it down."
      J.T. Ellison, author of All the Pretty Girls

"This novel is like a dream that haunts you in the daytime, masquerading as a memory of real events…. It is not only the concentrated beauty and unrelenting lyricism of Nikitas's language that ensnares the reader, but his unflinching immersion into the unlit corners of the human heart and conscience, our most hidden hopes, humiliations, and rationalizations. Although this novel is a page-turner in the classic sense, rich with villains, victims, and vengeance, Nikitas's original perceptions come as quickly as the explosions of violence, and the unlikely flashes of beauty and meaning his seemingly doomed characters find in the most hopeless, harrowing moments will take your breath away. At every turn Nikitas elevates this tale far above the conventions of the crime genre, returning again and again to life's great unanswerables -- as one character puts it, to "how little it would take to lose whatever (makes us) human."
    Wendy Brenner,
    Flannary O’Connor Award-winner and author of Phone Calls from the Dead