A compelling, eminently readable medical thriller that’s both enjoyable and alarming.
A doctor seeking revenge on abusers becomes a target herself in Rubin’s medical thriller.
Hope Sullivan is a Boston doctor who’s carved out a new role for herself on the side. She has a reputation for being kind, yet, after her long days at the clinic, she engages in something she’s dubbed “tune-ups.” On a typical tune-up, she seeks revenge against a man she believes to be abusing his wife. She doesn’t kill him—just kidnaps him, and tortures him a little, forcing him to say that he won’t hurt his wife again. (“I have come to believe, strongly, that sometimes the brutes, the bullies, the assholes out there need a little mental reshaping.”) Hope is quite self-aware, recognizing that she could take her campaign too far; she worries that she herself is becoming a monster. But after suffering a great deal of personal loss, including of her parents and her fiance, Hope is convinced that she’s justly making the world a better place. But Hope has a stalker: Menacing messages start arriving from someone blaming Hope for the death of a relative. She racks her brain, trying to figure out which of her former patients it could be, but comes up empty. Everything changes one night when she finds herself having to fight to save her own life from a similarly vengeful attacker. Rubin’s revenge thriller is fast-paced and full of plenty of unexpected twists and turns. A physician herself, the author has the knowledge to keep even some of the more implausible scenarios grounded within a medically authentic framework. The novel is a true page-turner and is just disturbing enough to keep things exciting until the end. The characterization of a protagonist with dark motives is well done, but her confrontations with others who are similarly motivated make this story truly memorable.
A compelling, eminently readable medical thriller that’s both enjoyable and alarming.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781958160077
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Indigo Dot Press
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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