A diabolically forceful crime novel that takes all the noir tropes and uses them in foreign territory to great effect.
A dogged investigative journalist hunts a killer with a deeply personal agenda in contemporary Spain.
Journalist and crime novelist Fernandez presents a dramatic crime story in his first book to be translated into English. Set in present-day Spain, the novel grapples with the long shadow of Franco and his government’s many, many trespasses against its people. At its heart is a ruthless killer executing a series of seemingly unconnected victims that include a nun, a banker, and other professionals who seem to have no ties to the killer’s political agenda. We experience Fernandez’s crisp crime story through the eyes of Diego Martin, whose investigative radio show exposes the corrupt and the criminals in society. Martin name-checks James Ellroy, and this sprawling yet taut crime novel recalls Ellroy’s percussive style. Diego has gotten involved with Isabel Ferrer, an attorney who has launched a campaign to expose a secret plot under Franco’s dictatorship to steal babies from their mothers. Fernandez’s prose is tight, and his descriptions of life under a corrupt government might well reflect our own current fractures in society. “Overload,” he writes. “Just too much. Too many strange occurrences. Too many deaths. Too many special editions. Too many bombs exploding at once. Too many coincidences. Too many unanswered questions.” Diego is assisted by two able comrades in David Ponce, a sitting judge navigating the country’s political minefields, and Ana Durán, a transgender private eye. The threats to them are palpable and familiar. “Threats like these are in their line of work,” Fernandez writes. “They have seen plenty of others. These attacks tell them one thing, though: they are making some people uncomfortable. Who? People in power, most likely, and they are starting to come out from the shadows.” Another character sums up the corruption they expose: “People knew right up to the highest echelons of power, and no one said a thing.”
A diabolically forceful crime novel that takes all the noir tropes and uses them in foreign territory to great effect.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62872-743-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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