A timely, high-stakes political page-turner.
Washington shenanigans provoke a female septuagenarian terrorist in this political thriller.
In Oshins’ latest, the political landscape may remind readers of the recent past: The president continually rails against “fake news,” the right and left are miles apart, and the right controls the White House, the Supreme Court, and the House of Representatives. Only the reelection of Democratic senator Allan Hansen of California stands in the way of the GOP’s domination of the Senate and therefore the entire government. Silver-haired FBI agent George Blum is tasked with taking down Hansen by outing him as the unidentified fourth conspirator of the infamous Oakland Four, who attempted to bomb a California biotech research facility nearly 40 years ago. Hansen’s roommate and fellow student at the time, Jimmy Tolver, was killed in a battle with police the night of the attempt, and slightly older “real revolutionaries” Jacob Gillium and Lauren Bastini were caught, tried, and given lengthy prison sentences. Hansen, tangentially involved, was convinced to snitch on the others to avoid jail time and keep his anonymity. Bastini, now 73, is out of jail, heavily armed, and no friend of the government. She also wants to destroy Hansen. But she is out to hurt him physically, possibly even kill him, and not merely ruin his political career. As Blum acknowledges, “Bastini might be seventy-three years old, but she could and would go hot if mishandled.” And she goes scorching. The story is riveting and relevant. Flawed or seriously damaged characters—all are one or the other—capture the reader’s attention. The dialogue flows well, the plot is scarily credible, and the descriptions are strong: “His eyes were large for his face, with irises like black olives.”
A timely, high-stakes political page-turner.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9798987788738
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Deep Six Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A weird, wild ride.
Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense.
Sager’s debut, Final Girls (2017), was fun and beautifully crafted. His most recent novels—Home Before Dark (2020) and Survive the Night (2021) —have been fun and a bit rickety. His new novel fits that mold. Narrator Casey Fletcher grew up watching her mother dazzle audiences, and then she became an actor herself. While she never achieves the “America’s sweetheart” status her mother enjoyed, Casey makes a career out of bit parts in movies and on TV and meatier parts onstage. Then the death of her husband sends her into an alcoholic spiral that ends with her getting fired from a Broadway play. When paparazzi document her substance abuse, her mother exiles her to the family retreat in Vermont. Casey has a dry, droll perspective that persists until circumstances overwhelm her, and if you’re getting a Carrie Fisher vibe from Casey Fletcher, that is almost certainly not an accident. Once in Vermont, she passes the time drinking bourbon and watching the former supermodel and the tech mogul who live across the lake through a pair of binoculars. Casey befriends Katherine Royce after rescuing her when she almost drowns and soon concludes that all is not well in Katherine and Tom’s marriage. Then Katherine disappears….It would be unfair to say too much about what happens next, but creepy coincidences start piling up, and eventually, Casey has to face the possibility that maybe some of the eerie legends about Lake Greene might have some truth to them. Sager certainly delivers a lot of twists, and he ventures into what is, for him, new territory. Are there some things that don’t quite add up at the end? Maybe, but asking that question does nothing but spoil a highly entertaining read.
A weird, wild ride.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18319-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
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