Exquisite in its gloom; should earn even more Ross Duncan fans.
Ross Duncan searches 1934 Chicago for the ever-elusive Irishman in a tale of vengeance (Sleep Not, My Child, 2013, etc.), the third novel in Bartley’s hard-boiled thriller series.
When former bank robber Duncan can’t find the Irishman, the man responsible for a loved one’s death, he does the next best thing: kills the Irishman’s brother and steals his girlfriend, Evelyn. The Irishman’s retaliation catches others in the crossfire. A Chicago criminal organization grants Duncan permission to hunt down the Irish gangster, provided that Duncan works with a killer-for-hire who’s rarely sober. The historical thriller showcases recognizable faces for readers keeping up with the series. Each character struggles with dramatic entanglements; in addition to the Irishman and Evelyn, there’s Duncan’s friend and bank-robbing associate, Jimmy, whose wife is dying; and special agent Trestleman, with whom Duncan shares a tenuous alliance. This installment, however, is more despondent: more violence, more dead bodies and a much more pessimistic Duncan, who’s fixated solely on his vendetta. It’s missing much of the tenderness of the previous entry, in which Duncan was resolute in his pursuit of an abducted boy. But it does show progression for both the hero and story: It’s hard to ignore the image of a .45 resting atop Duncan’s Bible, two items he always carries to signify his acceptance of the violent path. By this time, touches of noir are expected and the crisp dialogue doesn’t disappoint, such as Duncan’s rather blunt appreciation of beauty: “My eyes were filled with what they saw.” And Evelyn may very well be Bartley’s first genuine femme fatale, as the hero is torn between petty resentment over a pornographic photo featuring Evelyn (because of a man whose face can’t be seen) and his complete lack of trust in her. He’s at least smart enough to brace himself when she leads him into an unfamiliar room.
Exquisite in its gloom; should earn even more Ross Duncan fans.Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Peach Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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