Rating: 
Summary: A Gripping, Well-Constructed Story
Review: McCammon delivers an excellently constructed story in his new novel. Obviously, painstaking research went into the work, yet various historical points, such as medical treatment of the day, were presented in a matter-of-fact way. A lot of today's authors give way too much focus to the results of research with detrimental effects to the story. This author utilizes historical context to add a unique dimension to the mystery of what is transpiring in the town of Fount Royal.Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Return of the Mac!
Review: Robert McCammon is back, with one of his best novels ever. "Speaks the Nightbird" is the kind of book that really deserves a grass-roots, word-of-mouth campaign. If you read "Boy's Life" and it meant something to you, you owe it to yourself to pick up "Speaks the Nightbird." The story concerns an aging legal magistrate and his young clerk who come to the small Carolina village of Fount Royal at the close of the 17th century to decide the facts in a case of reputed witchcraft. Matthew Corbett, the magistrate's sharp-minded young clerk, is not sure he believes in witches, despite the accepted wisdom of the day. Corbett is a young man determined to see the world with his own set of eyes. This is good news for Rachel Howarth, the alleged witch, but not such good news for the young clerk himself. Matthew's determination to make up his own mind about the case runs him afoul of many of Fount Royal's most prominent residents. The villagers, who have come to blame recent deaths and failing crops on the accused witch, would like nothing more than a speedy, fiery solution to their troubles. What Matthew wants is the truth, no matter how slippery and elusive it proves to be. A boy on the cusp of adulthood, Matthew suspects that the decisions he makes in Fount Royal will ultimately be the proof of the man he is to become. What Matthew soon discovers, however, is that the road to truth and decency is bound to be a hard and lonely one. Even the magistrate, a normally fair and level-headed man who has often served as a father figure for the boy, is so mired in the "facts" of the case that he is unable to lend Matthew a helping hand. On the surface, "Speaks the Nightbird" is a neatly contstructed, involved mystery that will draw you in with its many beguiling twists and turns of plot. But at its heart, "Nightbird" is--like "Boy's Life" before it--really a moving coming-of-age tale. McCammon concerns himself here with the thorny interior struggles waged for the prize of personal integrity; he imbues his characters and prose with a poignant decency that is sorely missing from much of today's popular fiction. "Speaks the Nightbird" is an elegantly written, often riveting historical drama that also operates as a clever whodunit and an intriguing character study. It's also one of McCammon's best. Robert McCammon is so clearly at the top of his form in "Speaks the Nightbird" that it would be a shame if he never fully came out of retirement. But the decision to write or not to write is always a personal one. All that McCammon's fans can do is savor the words he's already written, and of course hope for more.
Rating:
Summary: INCREDIBLE
Review: To the person who said he is a McCammon fan but did not like this book, you must be a very shallow individual. To the person who said too much time was spent on the Magistrate's illness, I am very confused. Yes, some time was spent on it, but the workings of a doctor in 1699 were very interesting to me. He says nothing of the absurdity of the treatments, but he knows any educated person of our time will chuckle as he reads the conviction of the doctor and his treatments 300 years ago. I found it quite entertaining. Yes if you are only interested in nonstop action of a literal sort you will not apprecite this book. However, to me only two books of McCammon's (and he is one of my 5 alltime favorite authors) can compare to this one, Boys Life and Swan Song. Yes this book does not have the outright "action" of his other books, but nevertheless I could not put this book down. I read 300 pages the first night and the remaining 420 the next. The dialogue, the mystery, the relationships, the history, and the characterizations are unparalleled in anything else I have ever read. This should be the #1 bestseller at the moment...an incredible, amazing read. 10 years was worth the wait, Robert. Thank you for giving us this amazing story. I hope more will be forthcoming in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic read.
Review: I will keep this short and sweet. This is a very good book. It's in my top ten list of books that I have read. I was hesitant at first to start a 700+ page book that deals with a witch trial set in the late 1600's. I usually find myself reading fantasy novels from authors like Raymond E. Feist. But I read Boy's Life a few months back and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I thought I would give this a try. I am very glad that I did because I thought this actually topped Boy's Life. I highly recommend this book. It is excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: I didn't know McCammon had it in him
Review: I have read several of McCammon's novels, and while they are okay, they don't stand out in the crowd of horror. That said, Speaks the Nightbird is a surprise. I plodded through Koontz's latest, By the Light of the Moon--a decent affair that barely ensured my allegiance with Koontz--and started Nightbird the next day. I cannot put it down--I'm late for work, I stay up entirely too late;I've only just begun and read about 300 pages, normally I wouldn't write a review without finishing the book first, but I'm captivated by it. It has been a while since I've experienced this indescribible feeling of pure enjoyment; I look forward to reading it everyday; hours go by before I know it. I bought the book because the story of a 1699 witch hunt/trial intrigued me, and so far it does not disappoint. McCammon obviously did his research well, and it shows, blending into the story with invisible threads that don't jar the reader. Every character is strong, and each addition to the plot works well. Great so far. The 4 stars are because I haven't finished it yet; it is a 4 star book so far, and could easily be 5.
Rating:
Summary: Another winner
Review: Having read "Swan Song" several years ago, I realized that Mr. McCammon possessed the gift of storytelling like few others. This book proves his gift thrives. Lavish in detail and plot, readers will find here a well-researched tale of murder, witchcraft, and one man's pursuit of truth in the Carolina wilderness. "Speaks the Nightbird" kept me up late and got me up early until I finished its reading. Bravo, sir, for another fine story.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome back
Review: A talented author combines courtroom drama, witchcraft, colonial history, Indians, preachers and bears, and oh my, pirates too. You will be hooked early and despite the setting and length, stay for the end. Have fun.
Rating:
Summary: An Instant Classic!
Review: I would like to announce, with trembling enthusiasm, the appearance of a wonderful new book! If you like richly developed charachters, gripping mysteries, and being emotionally transported to another place and time, then this book is for you. I have read thousands of books and this was one of only three where I purposely forced myself to read the last 100 pages at a very slow pace to delay the end of the book.
I won't go into the details of the book, as other reviewers have already done so, but I will take the time to disagree with the reviewer who said McCammon spent too much time on the Magistrate's illness. I found it extremely interesting to learn about the state of medicine and unbelievable treatments used in 1699!
McCammon is a great writer, well ahead of excellent authors such as King and Koontz. Please read this book and get the word out! Hopefully we will not have to wait another 10 years for the next McCammon book.
Rating: 
Summary: And adequate entry
Review: I loved the first 400 pages of the book. As the mysteries and plot threads began to emerge and revolve and tangle, I was fascinated, waiting to see how McCammon would explain the strange goings on in his wonderfully real and remarkably detailed little town. And then he brought out the machete. Plot threads came to a screeching halt with bald description that did nothing to forward the story as a whole, the protagonists suddenly gained remarkable abilities and faculties never before to described and the "plot twist," the answer to the whole mystery, was a bitter disappointment. But the first 400 pages are great, and the book ends adequately enough.
Rating:
Summary: A Welcome Return of a Great Storyteller!
Review: Speaks the Nightbird is everything a reader might hope to find in a sprawling, complex, historical, murder mystery. Speaks the Nightbird is not a horror novel like many of Mr. McCammon's earlier books, but like the director Peter Jackson has done in The Lord of the Rings, McCammon uses horror conventions with great success to tell a large canvas tale with multiple important characters, eerie set pieces and a huge number of twisted subplots. He dexterously weaves it all together in a classic mystery denouement that would have Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle applauding from their drawing room chairs. This is the long overdue promise of one of our most underated but potent popular novelists writing today. I only hope we don't have to wait another ten years for Mr. McCammon's next novel.
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