A vivid sense of place, colorful characters, and a fishy disappearance will float the boat of mystery fans.
An abandoned, blood-spattered boat and its missing owner put a young reporter in dangerous waters in Yocum’s thriller.
“Stuff happens out there,” remarks Chatham chief of police Norm Thompson—he’s referring specifically to the waters off Chatham, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Boston Globe general assignment reporter Stacie Davis knows all too well of Chatham’s dark doings. Two years earlier, she reported on a bizarre murder mystery that nearly gave new meaning to the word deadline. Now, she’s reluctantly returned to the Cape after a boat owned and operated by local dentist Jim Soucy is discovered adrift on the water. Soucy, nowhere to be found (all that blood on the boat may not be fish-related), is “a card-carrying member of the top tier.” Class tensions between Chatham’s working-class community and the influx of wealthy newcomers like Soucy are making waves as well-off families are driving up real estate prices and “getting in the way of [commercial fishermen] trying to make a living.” Soucy himself is not exactly well liked (“A hot dog asshole,” is how Chief Thompson describes him). Davis is reluctant to return to “the outer reaches of the North American continent.” Beyond the peril in which she found herself, she had “an intense but fleeting romance” with Carl, a charter fisherman, but their careers got in the way. Carl steers her to one possible suspect, a fisherman with an “aggressive” grudge against Soucy. But Chatham, like the ocean, keeps its secrets. Yocum, a former journalist and Cape Cod local, knows his way around a story and the community depicted therein. His sophomore Cape Cod Mystery installment following A Whisper Came(2021) effectively revisits familiar characters (including Carl and Det. Sarah Langone) and introduces memorable new ones such as Nick Parsons, a no-nonsense Investigative Services agent with the Miami Coast Guard station. Yocum has a way with ominous dialogue that heightens the suspense, as when Stacie, in direst danger, asks her captor the time: “I’m curious,” she says. “Look what curiosity got you,” the captor responds.
A vivid sense of place, colorful characters, and a fishy disappearance will float the boat of mystery fans.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 289
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
