New lovers headline this unhurried but worthwhile murder mystery.
A U.S. marshal stumbles into romance and a homicide case at a therapeutic hot-springs resort in Burnett’s debut thriller.
Kate Swift is on psych leave from the Marshals Service following a Federal Witness Protection Program family’s massacre. She checks in at the Satori Institute in California’s Garrapata State Park, replete with therapeutic seminars and workshops in the comfort of a scenic retreat, complete with cabins and spa-like hot baths. Unexpectedly, she reunites with Tom Scott, a widower she met six months earlier. Kate wasn’t ready for a relationship then, but now might very well be. Meanwhile, local detectives are there as well: Someone discovered the lifeless, probably murdered body of Satori co-founder Malcolm Eastwick. When another body turns up, a fire blocking the road impedes the detectives’ return trip, so they enlist Kate to pick up their investigation. She and Tom, who’ve already helped the cops, are now partners in a murder mystery, and the couple scours for clues to identify a killer who’s likely right there at the institute with them and fellow guests. Burnett’s lead characters are engaging, each reluctant to dive into a relationship (Kate has previously dealt with a cheater). The murder investigation, led by personable detectives Laura Sanchez and Daniel O’Malley, initially unfolds as a separate plot. The dual storylines gradually and organically fuse once the cops learn there’s a U.S. marshal on site. Unfortunately, the “transitions workshop” in which Kate and Tom participate unfolds at a sluggish pace; recurring scenes over the course of days linger on many guests who play no part in the investigation. Nevertheless, tension surges when it’s clear that the murderer is watching (“They’ve planted spy cameras around the campus. Last night we found a camera in the room that I’ve been sharing with another workshop member”), possibly creeping into cabins and suites, and may have Tom in the crosshairs. Once Kate finally demonstrates her much-touted taekwondo skills and general badassery, the final act ignites in a satisfying ending.
New lovers headline this unhurried but worthwhile murder mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 979-8822916852
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Jack Ryan is in good hands with Cameron. There’s plenty of action for Clancy fans.
A generic title for Jack Ryan’s umpteenth encounter with mortal danger.
An aide tells President Ryan that he is “the kind of man who creates his own weather,” but that weather tends to be a violent storm. This time, Ryan plans a flight to Argentina but decides to first make a secret stop in Panama to visit President Botero. The secret leaks, of course, resulting in mucho mayhem as Ryan stumbles into the middle of a coup attempt. Meanwhile, the CIA’s Ground Branch kills the Venezuelan Russian assassin Joaquín Gorshkov, incurring the wrath of his batbleep-crazy sister, Sabine Gorshkova. Not much of a family person, she decides to have her younger sister, Blanca, killed and fed to the pigs. Sabine lays blame for her brother’s death on Mary Pat Foley, Director of National Intelligence, and swears claw-hammer vengeance. “I have a special interest in a little bird traveling with the President,” she declares. Oh yes, and a plot is afoot to murder Panama’s president and vice president to “liberate” the country. Russian naval vessels linger near the Panama Canal, ostensibly ready to help should the need arise. Ryan must tread carefully so as not to make the situation worse than it already is. The action-filled tale carries on the late Clancy's tradition, for example including great dollops of detail without hurting the storyline. There's almost enough about the Panama Canal for a Wikipedia entry and yet the facts flow as well as water through the Miraflores Locks. And readers will learn all seven types of weaponry on the Russian destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, aka The Black Terror, and the handy fact that a Bowers Group suppressor needs lithium grease. Bombs explode, bullets fly, and a Panamanian major shows her heroic mettle.
Jack Ryan is in good hands with Cameron. There’s plenty of action for Clancy fans.Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593422847
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
More like a con than a truly satisfying psychological mystery.
What should be a rare horror—a woman gone missing—becomes a pattern in Kubica's latest thriller.
One night, a young mother goes for a run. She never comes home. A few weeks later, the body of Meredith, another missing woman, is found with a self-inflicted knife wound; the only clue about the fate of her still-missing 6-year-old daughter, Delilah, is a note that reads, "You’ll never find her. Don’t even try." Eleven years later, a girl escapes from a basement where she’s been held captive and severely abused; she reports that she is Delilah. Kubica alternates between chapters in the present narrated by Delilah’s younger brother, Leo, now 15 and resentful of the hold Delilah’s disappearance and Meredith’s death have had on his father, and chapters from 11 years earlier, narrated by Meredith and her neighbor Kate. Meredith begins receiving texts that threaten to expose her and tear her life apart; she struggles to keep them, and her anxiety, from her family as she goes through the motions of teaching yoga and working as a doula. One client in particular worries her; Meredith fears her husband might be abusing her, and she's also unhappy with the way the woman’s obstetrician treats her. So this novel is both a mystery about what led to Meredith’s death and Delilah’s imprisonment and the story of what Delilah's return might mean to her family and all their well-meaning neighbors. Someone is not who they seem; someone has been keeping secrets for 11 long years. The chapters complement one another like a patchwork quilt, slowly revealing the rotten heart of a murderer amid a number of misdirections. The main problem: As it becomes clear whodunit, there’s no true groundwork laid for us to believe that this person would behave at all the way they do.
More like a con than a truly satisfying psychological mystery.Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-778-38944-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Park Row Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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