A genuinely funny sendup of a much-lampooned industry.
In Leaf’s comedic murder mystery, a struggling actress finds a dreadful surprise in the trunk of her car.
Vincenza Morgan moves from a small town in Minnesota, hoping to start a grander life in Los Angeles, a “city of searchers” portrayed with lacerating wit by the author. The aspiring actress struggles, barely making ends meet working the cash register at a marijuana dispensary. She lands a big audition for a movie starring famous actress Reese Witherspoon, but just before she gets her chance to show what she can do, she discovers a corpse in the trunk of her car. The man has clearly been killed, and the murder weapon, a revolver, lies beside him. She recognizes the victim: Tom Selva, a fellow actor and a man with whom she was sometimes romantically involved. After her audition—it’s just too important to miss, even to report a murder—she wrestles with her predicament, as the evidence clearly implicates her in the crime. Vincenza comes to believes that she’s being followed by members of her cultlike church, the Church of Life, which promises its members access to “esoteric truths” and the establishment of a “new Eden.” She begins to suspect the church’s head, James Armstrong (who calls himself the “Supreme Pilot”), might have had something to do with Selva’s death, and she fears her own life is in danger—a state of affairs as chilling as it is morbidly funny, the signature style of the author. Leaf’s portrayal of show business in Los Angeles isn’t original at all—this is all well-covered ground—but the story is delightfully humorous, and the murder mystery is engrossing. The book is filled with hilarious insights, as in a description of incarceration: “In some ways jail was alike to a cruise ship. You tried to make friends. You were sickened by the food. You couldn’t jump out the windows.” This is lighthearted literary entertainment at its best—easily companionable, intelligent, and brimming with artful humor.
A genuinely funny sendup of a much-lampooned industry.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781637587881
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bombardier Books
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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