Chills, thrills, and tension compete with a troubling desire to tie a nice, neat bow on the psychology of murder.
The host of a popular true-crime podcast investigates an unsolved serial killer case in this debut novel.
In Justice Delayed, her podcast, Elle delves into a series of serial murders that shocked the Upper Midwest with their brutality and obsessive precision. Perhaps most devastating of all, every victim was one year younger than the last, earning the perpetrator the nickname “The Countdown Killer.” These murders happened over the course of four years until the last victim, an 11-year-old girl, escaped her captivity; the remains of two adults and one of the missing victims were found in a burned cabin shortly thereafter, and as nothing has been heard from the killer for nearly 20 years, most people believe his was one of the bodies. Elle, who was herself abducted and abused as a child, tries to put her focus on telling the stories of the victims rather than sensationalizing the killer, but when discussing TCK, she finds it hard to remain distant. When someone contacts her with a tip that they know who TCK is, and then is murdered, she begins to wonder whether her podcast may have inspired the killer back to action. When an 11-year-old girl goes missing, Elle must convince the police that her hunch is correct or risk losing everything. The irony of the novel is that, despite Elle’s insistence that because the killer “wanted to control the narrative…I’m not going to give him what he wants,” author Clarke grants him several chapters of narration to better explain his obsessions and his “evolution.” This impulse to explain everything away with nice, neat symbolism only exacerbates the argument that true crime (though in this case, of course, the story is fictional) often serves to glorify the criminal. Everyone wants an origin story to help explain away evil, and Elle, or at least Clarke, is no exception.
Chills, thrills, and tension compete with a troubling desire to tie a nice, neat bow on the psychology of murder.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-41893-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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
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
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