Aren’t hospitals freaky enough as is? Alexandra Sokoloff’s THE PRICE ups their inherent unsettling factor in her sophomore novel.

Will Sullivan is a handsome, charismatic, Kennedy-esque politician with a beautiful wife and adorable daughter. He’s poised to become the next governor of Massachusetts, but he’s unsure he wants the position, despite being bred for it his entire career. Because that’s what happens when your innocent little girl has a grapefruit-sized tumor metastasizing within her stomach. Your priorities change.

In his long days of killing time at the hospital, Will wanders around its cavernous, labyrinthian campus, with buildings connected via tunnels and skyways. At one point, he receives comforting words from a mysterious man named Salk, who introduces himself as a hospital counselor. Salk also attempts to soothe the wounded soul of Will’s emotionally frigid wife Joanna.

But Will is troubled by visions he sees around the medical complex’s grounds, of dwarves and nuns, and then even more so by the unexplained phenomena that begin occurring, against all rational explanation.

The reader, however, might be able to guess just what’s going on. I did early in the narrative — it’s kinda one of the oldest tricks among storytelling tropes — and yet I still pored over every page like an ant to drops of a Popsicle. That’s because Sokoloff is a great writer, and even the oldest stories can bear relevance if well-told and reimagined.

Her prose spreads smoothly like margarine on a muffin. THE PRICE moves with a simple swiftness that recalls the thrillers of Ira Levin, and — lo and behold — she thanks the late author in her acknowledgments. The shout-out is appropriate, as both write efficient, effective thrillers that cut right to the bone. Sokoloff just has yet to grab a Levin-sized audience, although she’s certainly due. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE HARROWING by Alexandra Sokoloff