Aims for biting commentary but falls short of revelation.
Less than a year into the pandemic, a wealthy filmmaker is shot dead and his wife goes missing, exposing the “deep darkness” at the heart of marriage, friendship, and professional relationships.
As bitter weather ushers in the first full winter of the pandemic, restaurants are hurting for business, and masks are still the normal accessory for any social interaction. Fear is already a bosom companion of most people’s lives—fear of illness, fear of eviction, fear of debt—so when a cleaning lady discovers the bloody body of movie director Nate Walker in his Brooklyn Heights town house, it’s another sign of how far removed people are from any sense of safety. Suspiciously, at least to the cops, no one can find Nate’s wife, Melissa, so her best friend, Imani Banks, steps in to break the news to their daughter. Meanwhile, Tonya Sayre, a single mom and struggling waitress, finds that a closely guarded secret about her daughter’s parentage may not be enough to guarantee her financial stability, so she throws herself on the mercy of the man who owns the restaurant where she works. The owner—Imani’s husband, Philip—is already dealing with his own financial troubles. Over the course of the next week, despite several misdirections and misunderstandings, Imani will fight to find Melissa and to clear her of suspicion. The chapters switch perspectives among many of the characters, but with a small cast, there’s not much mystery, really—or satisfying motive—to drive the action. The more interesting and psychologically engaging parts of the novel explore the pandemic’s effects on social and economic stability. The human capacity for selfishness and evil is a well-established reality, but the realities of loving and surviving in the midst of a global pandemic are still fresh and evolving themes.
Aims for biting commentary but falls short of revelation.Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5387-0918-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 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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