Medusa's Web by Tim Powers

Medusa's Web

by Tim Powers

In the wake of their Aunt Amity's suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline's return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby south of Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this old house that is a conduit for the supernatural.

Decorated by bits salvaged from old hotels and movie sets, Caveat hides a dark family secret that stretches back to the golden days of Rudolph Valentino and the silent film stars. A collection of hypnotic abstract images inked on paper allows the Maddens to briefly fragment and flatten time - to transport themselves into the past and future in visions that are both puzzling and terrifying.

As Madeline falls more completely under Caveat's spell, Scott must fight to protect her. But will he unravel the mystery of the Madden family's past and finally free them. . . or be pulled deeper into their deadly web?

Reviewed by viking2917 on

3 of 5 stars

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Siblings Scott and Madeline Madden return to the house they grew up in Hollywood. Their aunt killed herself, and their cousins Claimayne and Ariel still live there. The house is creepy....and before you know it, Scott and Madeline get involved in some time travel to old Hollywood. Rudolf Valentino makes an appearance, and ....

Any new book by Tim Powers is a treat. He's dredged up a bunch of old Hollywood history and some interesting occult "spiders", drawings that enable time transport.

But, it's not Power's best book. I enjoyed it but wasn't gripped by it. Power's signature move is alternate histories that dovetail with real history, and Medusa's Web only has a touch of that. Powers fans will enjoy it. But if you've not read Powers before, try Last Call or Declare first.

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  • 27 February, 2016: Reviewed