A grim and engrossing procedural with a stellar cast.
A convict takes over her identical twin sister’s life in New Orleans, only to arouse the suspicions of a clever, intuitive detective in Zappa’s debut thriller.
Veronica Westbrook has never met her twin, Ann Livingston, as they were adopted at birth by two separate families. While serving time in prison for running a con on a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, Veronica receives a letter from Ann, who hopes that they can connect. Veronica has no interest in a reunion, but she does respond favorably to the fact that Ann has a wealthy husband, Ben. She concocts a plan to steal her sister’s identity, which, soon after her release, entails shadowing and then murdering Ann. Veronica subsequently fakes a car accident and resultant amnesia—as Ann—so she can convince Ben and his family of her identity long enough to swipe millions. However, homicide detective Tammy Jo Crowder thinks that there’s a possibility someone ran “Ann” off the road, but as she investigates further, she starts to think that the accident victim intentionally drove her car into a tree. Then she finds a notable discrepancy in some medical records suggests that the woman claiming to be Ann isn’t Ann. Ben, meanwhile, is also wary, as he’s noticed subtle differences in his wife’s personality. Complicating Veronica’s plan further is that fact that her former cellmate, Sarah Booth, is out of prison; she’s privy to the con and demands a piece of the pie. After transferring funds to a Swiss bank account, Veronica stages a suicide for a clean escape. But the cautious Crowder digs deeper to prove Veronica is on a crime spree.
Zappa fills this often somber but energetic tale with wonderfully complex characters. Veronica isn’t a one-note villain; she’s a sociopath who doesn’t experience a normal human range of emotion, and the story touches on her background (namely, regarding her and Ann’s biological mother). At the same time, Crowder isn’t a squeaky-clean hero; at one point, for instance, she acquires the aforementioned medical records illegally. She’s nevertheless an admirable detective who resists when her superiors want to close the case; readers will, of course, cheer her on, knowing that her conjectures are often spot-on. As Veronica’s scheme ultimately takes her out of the United States, new characters appear to great effect, including someone who’s gunning for the con woman, Will Goodman. The dialogue-heavy story predominantly consists of Veronica executing con-game manipulations and Crowder mulling over case details, but it generally maintains a fast pace. Indeed, Zappa largely eschews graphic depictions of sex and murder. Even during the final act, which includes confrontations between multiple characters, the author doesn’t linger on violence. Unfortunately, there are some blunders that are particularly noticeable as the detective delves into the twins’ history. For example, the age of Ann’s daughter, Meg, doesn’t match her date of birth.Although this novel works as a stand-alone, the author leaves open the possibility of a sequel.
A grim and engrossing procedural with a stellar cast.Pub Date: July 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-922329-04-2
Page Count: 356
Publisher: AIA Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.
Many years after her older brother, Bear, went missing, Barbara Van Laar vanishes from the same sleepaway camp he did, leading to dark, bitter truths about her wealthy family.
One morning in 1975 at Camp Emerson—an Adirondacks summer camp owned by her family—it's discovered that 13-year-old Barbara isn't in her bed. A problem case whose unhappily married parents disdain her goth appearance and "stormy" temperament, Barbara is secretly known by one bunkmate to have slipped out every night after bedtime. But no one has a clue where's she permanently disappeared to, firing speculation that she was taken by a local serial killer known as Slitter. As Jacob Sluiter, he was convicted of 11 murders in the 1960s and recently broke out of prison. He's the one, people say, who should have been prosecuted for Bear's abduction, not a gardener who was framed. Leave it to the young and unproven assistant investigator, Judy Luptack, to press forward in uncovering the truth, unswayed by her bullying father and male colleagues who question whether women are "cut out for this work." An unsavory group portrait of the Van Laars emerges in which the children's father cruelly abuses their submissive mother, who is so traumatized by the loss of Bear—and the possible role she played in it—that she has no love left for her daughter. Picking up on the themes of families in search of themselves she explored in Long Bright River (2020), Moore draws sympathy to characters who have been subjected to spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse. As rich in background detail and secondary mysteries as it is, this ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging novel never seems overplotted. Every piece falls skillfully into place and every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint.
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593418918
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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