A nuanced coming-of-age tale wrapped around a tense, slow-burn mystery.
In this novel, an Australian woman confronts family traumas and long-buried secrets when she returns to her childhood home.
As a teen in Pine Creek, Australia, Sara Hamilton faces a difficult home life on her family’s cattle and sheep farm. Her father, Len, regularly berates 15-year-old Sara; her older siblings, Anne and Robbie; and their mother, Elena. The Hamilton teens try different methods of escape: Anne dreams of attending a university; Robbie starts using drugs and skipping school; and Sara develops a crush on Ryan Finch, a 17-year-old boy who works on Len’s farm. In June 1989, Sara’s 14-year-old neighbor Alec Stynes disappears from his home. Sara had wanted to befriend Alec, but her classmates said he was gay and she knew her father was homophobic. The next morning, Alec’s body is discovered in a channel near the highway. The authorities believe he was hit by a car, but the only clues are a missing shoe and a colorful coat he always wore. Ten years later, Sara’s mother asks her to return home after Len suffers a stroke. The protagonist’s homecoming coincides with the news that an ABC reporter is investigating Alec’s unsolved death (“They want to feature his death on a cold case program”). As Sara revisits her past and the circumstances surrounding the teen’s death, suspicions about the people closest to her surface. She discovers that someone may be willing to kill to keep the truth about the tragedy a secret. Roach offers a well-paced mystery that deftly moves between past and present as its protagonist navigates a traumatic childhood and the lingering effects of her neighbor’s death. The first part traces the weeks before Alec’s death, with occasional digressions about Sara’s early childhood. These sections deliver insight into Len’s volatile behavior around his wife and children and the effects of homophobia on Alec. The second half of the gripping novel is set in 1999 as Sara returns home and revisits the case. The timeline shift is abrupt but effective as it enables Roach to revisit characters and storylines through a different lens, such as Robbie’s connection to Alec.
A nuanced coming-of-age tale wrapped around a tense, slow-burn mystery.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9780645390414
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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