An entertaining and sometimes-poignant work of detective fiction.
An ex-cop–turned-pastor must use his investigative skills to figure out what happened to a missing clergyman in Gresham’s latest series mystery.
When Matt Hayden, an elderly pastor on medical leave after getting shot in the previous series installment,attends the inauguration of his best friend’s son, Jimmy Novak, as the governor of Texas, he doesn’t expect to give the benediction. He fills in for David Duff, another pastor, who doesn’t show up. Matt stays for a celebratory barbecue, and afterward, he’s ambushed by reporters, and all the excitement causes the ill pastor to pass out. After awakening in a hospital, Matt is advised to stay in Austin; his best friend, James W. Novak, arranges for him to stay in the home of Hester Honeywell, who previously hosted Duff and Duff’s assistant, Pastor Greg Lambert. When Duff is finally declared a missing person, Matt joins the investigation. At the same time, he tries to respect his own physical limitations and work on his relationship with his fiancee, bar owner Angie O’Day. Gresham, who also wrote Murder in the Second Pew (2017), returns with another compelling mystery. From the start, the author will draw readers in with his uniquely cautious protagonist—a rare fictional detective who tries to avoid excitement and distress due to the possibility that they might raise his blood pressure. He also necessarily uses a cane to get around despite the fact he’s never happy to be reminded to use it. Most readers wouldn’t expect someone so fragile to be working a missing person case, but the author makes it feel plausible by putting Matt in just the right place at the right time. Matt also intriguingly works to figure out Angie’s feelings for him; since his injury, she’s been more of a caretaker than a lover. Overall, it’s an engaging tale, told at an appealing pace, despite its lack of closure at the end.
An entertaining and sometimes-poignant work of detective fiction.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 360
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.
An aspiring mystery writer sets out to solve her great-aunt’s murder and inherit an estate.
Twenty-five-year-old Annie Adams has never met her great-aunt Frances, who prefers her small village to busy London. But when a mysterious letter arrives instructing Annie to come to Castle Knoll in Dorset to meet Frances and discuss her role as sole beneficiary of her great-aunt’s estate, Annie can’t resist. Unfortunately, she arrives to find Frances’ worst fears have come true: The elderly woman—who’s been haunted for decades by a fortuneteller’s prediction that this will happen—has been murdered, and her will dictates that she will leave her entire estate to Annie, but only if Annie solves her killing. It’s a cheeky if not exactly believable premise, especially since the local police don’t seem terribly opposed to it. Annie herself is an engaging presence, if a little too blind to the fact that she could be on the killer’s to-do list. Her roll call of suspects is pleasingly long, including but not limited to the local vicar, a one-time paramour of her great-aunt’s; a gardener who grows a lot more than flowers; shady developers and suspicious friends from Frances’ past; and Saxon, Annie’s crafty rival, who inherits the estate himself if he manages to solve the case first. Annie pieces together clues through readings of Frances’ journal, but the story eventually runs aground on the twin rocks of too much explanation and a flimsy climax. Cute dialogue gives way to lengthy exposition, and by the time Frances’ killer is revealed you may well be ready to leave Annie, Dorset, and Castle Knoll behind for the firmer ground of reality. Fans of cozy mysteries are likely to be more forgiving, but if you cast a skeptical eye toward amateur sleuths, this novel won’t change your mind about them.
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593474013
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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