An often haunting tale of sinister secrets.
A psychologist attempts to uncover a sex trafficking ring while wrestling with trauma in Rivers’ thriller sequel.
After discovering a criminal conspiracy in her small town, Alamogordo, New Mexico, in Complicit (2021), Kate Medina is compelled to restart her life after losing her job as a high school psychologist. To that end, she remodels her desert home so that it’s all but impregnable, like an “old-time fortress.” She’s overwhelmed by fearful anxiety that sex traffickers in her town will eventually attempt to silence her; prominent businessman Allen Parks, one of them, pays her a menacing visit, chillingly depicted by the author. Kate establishes her own private practice, and while she’s hesitant to mine her clients for information, she keeps picking up clues that point to the conspiracy’s ringleaders. She begins to suspect that her mother’s death was not, as she once thought, an accident and may be connected to her knowledge of the criminal underbelly of Alamogordo. Meanwhile, Kate’s sister, Tilly, moves back to town and struggles with trauma related to past sexual abuse; she decides to use herself as bait to capture a serial rapist. Rivers paints an artfully disturbing portrait of a dark world of criminality that’s as ubiquitous as it is invisible—one in which respected and powerful people prey upon the town’s vulnerable youth. The prose is straightforwardly plain and largely shorn of poetical embellishment, although it can veer into cliché at times: “How could she even consider bringing children into a world like this?” However, the novel as a whole radiates a feeling of gloom that’s as entrancing as it is horrifying. It’s the second installment in a series, and although it’s a self-sufficient, stand-alone novel—the reader doesn’t need to read its predecessor to enjoy it—the two stories are so deeply intertwined that it’s best to read both.
An often haunting tale of sinister secrets.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73451-606-7
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Compathy Press, LLC.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2022
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
