Adds little to the Ross Duncan series, but as a self-contained mystery, it’s a knockout.
In Bartley’s (To Catch is Not to Hold, 2013, etc.) latest hard-boiled thriller, former bank robber Ross Duncan, commissioned to locate a wayward granddaughter, exposes blackmail and prostitution in 1934 New York.
Coming highly recommended by Chicago gangsters, Duncan is hired by Col. Bennett, an aging war veteran, after someone asking for a payoff sends the colonel a compromising photo of his granddaughter, Veronica. Her blackmailing of married men is just the start of Duncan’s investigation, which is hindered by an open contract on him. But who wants him dead? The fifth book in Bartley’s ongoing series boasts a film-noir feel, more so than the previous novels: Every female character, particularly Veronica, is an untrustworthy femme fatale; Duncan gets roughed up by heavies, and though he’s never slipped a Mickey, he’s otherwise rendered unconscious. Despite saying he’s “something else altogether” when asked if he’s a detective, Duncan does, in fact, play the part of the gumshoe. Bartley relies on previous books in the series to define Duncan; readers familiar with the series will understand Duncan’s personal desire to help the redemption-seeking Bennett. For new readers, amid the mostly superficial references to earlier stories, Duncan will come across as a stoic, hardened man. Most of the supporting characters making a first appearance in the series have plenty of personality, too, including Remo Marsden, a two-bit hoodlum who seems to have genuine affection for Veronica; and Nancy Presser, a woman who remains hopeful even in the clutches of drug addiction and prostitution. Welcome trademarks of the series pop up throughout: a good amount of action (gangsters are trying to kill Duncan, after all); Duncan’s Bible at his side; and keen dialogue, as when Duncan, reminded that he’ll die someday, says matter-of-factly, “I have things to do first.” But the story, despite being refreshingly complex with an endless stream of suspects and red herrings, seems like it could have been told with anyone in the lead, not necessarily Duncan.
Adds little to the Ross Duncan series, but as a self-contained mystery, it’s a knockout.Pub Date: May 29, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Peach Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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