An action-packed but uneven thriller.
A lawyer rescues a victim in distress and gets drawn into the hunt for a serial rapist in this crime novel.
Attorney Jessie Martin pulls over to the side of the road while driving in Poughkeepsie, New York, when she spies a woman lying unconscious in the pouring rain. The woman, Lissie Sexton, survives—she’s a sex worker who was mercilessly beaten by a client she cannot adequately identify. Police detective Ebony Jones—a direct, “just the facts, ma’am” type of investigator—comes to believe that Lissie suffered at the hands of a dangerous serial rapist as similar victims are discovered. Unfortunately, Lissie disappears, and it turns out that she’s represented by Jeremy Kaplan, a shady lawyer, who insists on keeping her whereabouts unknown. Jessie has a tortured history with Jeremy, a despicable man who once tried to destroy her career. Yet she is now offered a job by him. A distraught Jessie mulls her thorny predicament: “Was she really considering crossing over to the dark side? To Jeremy Kaplan? The man who’d almost had her disbarred, who’d cost her the partnership at Curtis and McMann, her engagement to Kyle, and who’d threatened her life and Lily’s? Was she out of her freaking mind?” She ends up accepting the position against her better judgment. Now, Jones leans on Jessie to disclose Lissie’s whereabouts. But Jessie refuses, a decision that only increases the already existing tensions between her and Jones, her former best friend.
In this ambitious sequel, Millman certainly doesn’t skimp on the action—every page seems to reveal a new drama or explain an old one, and the tale’s pace never lags. The main plot is intelligently structured and entirely plausible. While it offers nothing literarily original, the story provides a thoughtful portrayal of the tension between the demands of defense attorneys and the needs of law enforcement. But the tale is written in such a hyperventilated style that it sometimes seems more comic than tragic. The backstory is so complex that it quickly becomes a burden—the book begins with an unwieldy freight of dramas that are difficult to unravel. Jessie is stalked by a psychotic killer; is in a state of perpetual struggle with her ex-fiance; and flounders in her current relationship with Hal Samuels, a district attorney, who has his own set of problems, both professional and personal. As the subplots multiply, the tale becomes increasingly overwrought. But the principal bar to readers’ enjoyment of what could be an entertaining crime drama is the author’s writing, which swings from melodramatic to bland. Consider this internal monologue by Jones: “This is why I became a public servant, she thought. Solving crimes and catching scumbags are cool, but saving a life’s the best.”
An action-packed but uneven thriller.Pub Date: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68512-082-5
Page Count: 374
Publisher: Level Best Books
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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
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