A grim but often engaging missing-person tale.
In Gerard-Alesco’s thriller, an American ex-pat in Thailand stumbles into a world of drug trafficking and shifting alliances when he tries to find a missing friend.
Greg Robber is an oddly named young man with a gift for languages. He’s recruited by a CIA man named Elliot at Oxford’s Christ Church College in England, and then sent to the Thai village of Chiang Mai. Greg’s cover is that he’s taking notes and photos to write a book about the customs of the hill people, but his real mission is to “watch, listen, and report” on the local drug trade to Elliot. In the process, Greg befriends some idealistic Westerners, including Albie Saint Clair, a wealthy geophysicist, who sets up a research facility, hoping to end the local practice of slashing and burning teak forests to grow opium, and Mary Peyton, a saintly nun who runs a health clinic. But a malevolent figure known as Fat Man runs a local gambling establishment, compels local businesses to pay protection, and distributes opium. His vicious offspring, Fat Boy, is his enforcer. When Greg’s initial mission ends, he stays on as Albie’s translator—but then Albie disappears. Greg searches for his friend in Thailand and then crosses the Burmese border, fearing that the worst has happened. Gerard-Alesco adeptly creates a corrupt world that recalls the work of Raymond Chandler with its morally ambiguous characters. Some villagers destroy forests and grow opium, for instance, but they do so for survival and are shown to be otherwise upstanding. Even the book’s central player, Greg, is far from a hero: He cares about his friends, but he allows his loyal pal Wes to express racist, antigay, and misogynist views unchallenged. The protagonist is also effectively shown to be lustful, uncertain, and aimless, and he allows others, including Elliot and Albie’s sister, Gwen, to determine his fate for him. The author also paints a vivid picture of Thailand, in which tour buses mingle with water buffalo–drawn carts on the streets. Overall, the picturesque setting, flawed protagonist, and noir atmosphere make this thriller stand out.
A grim but often engaging missing-person tale.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781629672625
Page Count: 366
Publisher: Wise Media Group
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence.
A series of mounting complications leads to yet another fight to the death between the discarded intelligence agents of Slough House and the morally bankrupt head of MI5.
As Jackson Lamb’s motley crew on Aldersgate Street struggles to cope with the deaths of River Cartwright’s grandfather and mentor, intelligence veteran David Cartwright, and their dim, beloved colleague Min Harper, new troubles are brewing. Diana Taverner, who runs the British Intelligence Service from Regent’s Park, is being blackmailed by former MP Peter Judd to do his bidding. Nothing untoward about that, of course, but this time, Judd’s demands, backed by a compromising tape recording, are more pressing than usual. So Diana reconvenes the Brains Trust—Al Hawke, Avril Potts, Daisy Wessex, and their ex-boss Charles Cornell Stamoran—whose last assignment was to serve as the contact for psychopathic IRA informant Dougie Malone while turning a blind eye to his multiple rapes and murders, which were really none of the Crown’s business. Taverner’s new assignment for the Brains Trust is the assassination of Judd. Since all these developments are filtered through the riotously cynical lens of Herron’s imagination, nothing goes as planned, and when the smoke clears, the fatalities don’t include Judd. Now that Judd knows he has as much reason to fear Taverner as she does to fear him, Lamb offers to broker a peace meeting between them which Slough House computer geek Roddy Ho will keep secret by knocking out 37 security cameras around Taverner’s dwelling. What could possibly go wrong?
The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781641297264
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Soho Crime
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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