This entertaining sequel and its vibrant, now-familiar characters will surely leave readers craving more.
Nerves are frayed in New York City when an affluent celebrity’s murder threatens to ignite a race war in Myers’ thriller series installment.
For some time, white supremacist groups have been trying to assassinate the Black Camelots—a group of successful Black friends and those close to them. When a white supremacist hit squad kills Phaethon Malone, a beloved Jamaican-born pro athlete and humanitarian (and friend of the Camelots), Jamaican gang leaders in New York demand revenge. NYPD Chief of Detectives Teddy Walker wants to prevent a race war and seeks help from the Society of Protectors, whose combat-trained members have thwarted previous assassination attempts. Meanwhile, California Democratic senator Janet Bivens eyes the presidential election, intending to run against Republican candidate Digby Yates. While Janet has indirect ties to the Society of Protectors, Digby is an unsavory sort (years ago, he helped cover up the fatal police beating of a Black college football player). As the Black Camelots mourn their loss, someone plans a lethal assault in hopes of turning New Yorkers against one another. Myers, as per usual, loads this story with memorable characters, both returning and new. A few appearances are akin to cameos; others spawn engaging subplots that, unfortunately, lead nowhere. In some ways, this novel feels transitional, carrying over conflicts from the preceding installment and unspooling new plot threads, such as a Black Camelot member’s crucial political decision, for a sequel to pick up later. Still, the tension rarely lets up as Walker struggles to maintain peace, the Society of the Protectors’ enigmatic leader (“the Voice”) interrogates an uncooperative killer, and the baddies put a master assassin (“one of the most feared and renowned in the business”) on their payroll. The large, dynamic cast, abetted by deftly succinct writing and short chapters, propels the narrative with an impressively swift momentum.
This entertaining sequel and its vibrant, now-familiar characters will surely leave readers craving more.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2022
ISBN: 9781088009291
Page Count: 326
Publisher: Fero Scitus
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.
What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?
In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either).
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593798607
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
Expert, but unsurprising.
The death of an old friend who was more than a friend sends Dr. Kay Scarpetta down her latest rabbit hole.
If every body tells a story, the corpse of 7-year-old Luna Briley sings the blues. On top of the many signs of ongoing physical abuse, there’s the fatal gunshot wound to her head. Ryder and Piper Briley, the wealthy and powerful parents who didn’t call the police until after their daughter died, insist that Luna’s death was an accident, or maybe a suicide. Scarpetta doesn’t think so, and her refusal to release the body to the Brileys’ hand-picked mortician moves them to legal action against her as Virginia’s chief medical examiner. You’d think it would be a relief to put this case aside for another when Scarpetta’s niece, Secret Service agent Lucy Farinelli, calls her and ferries her by helicopter to an abandoned Oz theme park owned by Ryder Briley, but this one’s even more heartbreaking. Scarpetta is there to examine the body of astrophysicist Sal Giordano, her close friend and former lover, who was evidently kidnapped, held in captivity for several hours, and tossed out of an unidentified aircraft. The leading suspects are the Brileys; Carrie Grethen, Lucy’s sociopathic ex-lover, with whom Scarpetta has repeatedly tangled in the past; and the UFO that dumped Giordano’s body without leaving the usual traces for air-traffic technologies to pick up. The multiple rounds of physical examinations Scarpetta conducts on both victims are every bit as meticulous and gripping as fans would expect; the killer’s identity is neither surprising nor interesting, but Cornwell juggles her trademark forensics, and the paranormal hints she’s become increasingly invested in, more dexterously than usual.
Expert, but unsurprising.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781538770382
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK TO SCREEN
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