A smart, enjoyable summer read.
Sassy pathologist Toni Day shines in this modern-day mystery of corporate shenanigans and hospital politics.
Within hours of taking the reins as an administrator at Perrine Memorial Hospital, the slick but charismatic Marcus Manning begins pressuring Day to resign. When she resists, demanding details about the alleged complaints regarding her job performance, Manning implies an alternative solution: If she’ll have sex with him, she can keep her job. Shortly after this conversation, he offers the same deal to another female physician, kicking off an involved campaign of blackmail and extortion—until he drops dead at the company picnic, the victim of a toxic lemonade. Finding herself a suspect in the case, Day throws herself into clearing her name and revealing the real killer. Little does she know that she’ll find more than her reputation at risk. As she gets closer to the truth, she confronts a killer whose vengeful plans allow for plenty of collateral damage. The villainous Manning is almost too evil—he lies, he cheats, he sexually harasses co-workers, he abuses his wife, he beats his children, etc.—which makes for an impressive array of plausible suspects for his murder, though it detracts from the quality of his own character development, which elsewhere is expertly nuanced. Dialogue is fresh and witty: “Beauty is only skin deep, but asshole goes all the way to the bone,” Day quips early on in the book. Award-winning author Munro (Too Much Blood, 2012, etc.) worked for years as a pathologist, and her experience lends authenticity to the work. Overall, plotting and pacing are satisfying, though some of the plot twists strain believability; for instance, how many times can one man be surprised that his private conversations were recorded on a hidden cellphone? There are other minor missteps, including the shockingly permissive attitudes of the police, but the effect isn’t too troubling, and the strong, action-packed conclusion will likely leave readers wanting more from this talented writer.
A smart, enjoyable summer read.Pub Date: June 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481218993
Page Count: 292
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.
A routine break-in at the home of Sûreté homicide chief Armand Gamache leads slowly but surely to the revelation of a potentially calamitous threat to all Québec.
At first it seems as if nothing at all triggered the burglar alarm at Gamache’s home in Three Pines; it was literally a false alarm. It’s not till he receives a package containing his summer jacket that Gamache realizes someone really did get into his house, choosing to steal exactly this one item and return it with a cryptic note referring to “some malady…water” and “Angelica stems.” Having already refused to meet with Jeanne Caron, chief of staff to Marcus Lauzon, a powerful politician who’s already taken vengeance on Gamache and his family for not expunging his child’s criminal record, Gamache now agrees to meet with Charles Langlois, a marine biologist with ties to Caron who confesses to a leading role in stealing Gamache’s jacket. Their meeting ends inconclusively for Gamache, who’s convinced that Langlois is hiding something weighty, and all too conclusively for Langlois, who’s killed by a hit-and-run driver as he leaves. The news that Langlois had been investigating a water supply near the abbey of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups sends Gamache scurrying off to the abbey, where the plot steadily thickens until he’s led to ask how “an old recipe for Chartreuse” can possibly be connected to “a terrorist plot to poison Québec’s drinking water.” That’s a great question, and answering it will take the second half of this story, which spins ever more intricate connections among leading players that become deeply unsettling.
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250328137
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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