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BURNER

Hardcore action here. Greaney and the Gray Man are on their game.

The Gray Man dodges death and whups the bad guys for the 12th time in this nonstop thriller.

A banker steals records from his Swiss employer, hoping to expose corruption. He stores the information on a burner phone, and everybody wants it—not least the Russians and the CIA. Court Gentry, the man of many monikers—the Gray Man, Violator, and Six—is pulled off his job of blowing up “oligarchs’ big toys,” i.e., their mega-yachts, to help find the phone. He’s ex–CIA, and now he’s a freelancer, “only taking contracts he thought to be principled.” There’s excitement even before the main plotline as limpets spread shock waves under the sea. Meanwhile, he pines for his erstwhile lover Zoya Zakharova, the ex–SVR agent who’d once tried to kill him until their hormones kicked in. Now she feels adrift, her only companions being bottles of vodka and lines of cocaine. And wouldn't you know, a phone call pulls her from her stupor. If you’re not too damn drunk, a voice tells her, we need you to find a phone with stolen banking information before anyone else gets their hands on it. Paraphrasing Casablanca: Of all the plotlines in all the thrillers in all the world, Zoya walks into Violator’s. But the two assassins meet under the most incommodious of circumstances. Hmm. Do they kiss or kill? Hint: This isn't a romance novel. Readers will have great fun as Gentry manages to survive, sometimes in implausible ways. You'll think he is done for on a Swiss train until you see there are 200 pages to go and remember that he's the series hero. So no spoilers there. But that train ride provides the story’s most riveting action until the blazing finale. Series fans already know that the CIA, specifically Suzanne Brewer, has a kill order out for Gentry. Brewer has always been a scheming antagonist, but now she truly reveals the darkness of her character. Not much is predictable but for the actions of CIA agent Angela Lacy, who has never shot anyone before and is loath to do so now. Alert readers will be thinking, Come on Angela! You can do it!

Hardcore action here. Greaney and the Gray Man are on their game.

Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-54810-3

Page Count: 528

Publisher: Berkley

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

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THE SILENT PATIENT

Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.

Awards & Accolades

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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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BEAUTIFUL UGLY

“Nasty little fellows…always get their comeuppance,” a movie character once said. Deeply satisfying.

Following the mysterious disappearance of his wife, a struggling London novelist journeys to a remote Scottish island to try to get his mojo back—but all, of course, is not what it seems.

Grady Green hits the pinnacle of his publishing career on the same night that his life goes off the rails—first his book lands on the New York Times bestseller list, and then his wife, Abby, goes missing on her way home. A year later, Grady is a mere shadow of his former self: out of money and out of ideas. So, when his agent, Abby’s godmother, suggests that he spend some time on the Isle of Amberly, in a log cabin left to her by one of her writers, it seems as good a plan as any. With free housing for himself and his dog and a beautiful, distraction-free environment, maybe he can finally complete the next novel. But from the very beginning, Grady’s experiences with Amberly seem weird, if not downright ominous: As a visitor, he’s not allowed to bring his car onto the island; the local businesses are only open for a few hours at a time; and there are no birds. At all. Not to mention the skeletal hand he finds buried under the floorboards of the cabin, the creepy harmonica music in the woods, and the occasional sighting of a woman in a red coat who’s a dead ringer for Abby. As Grady falls deeper and deeper into insomnia and alcoholism, he begins to realize his being on the island is no accident—and that should make him very afraid. Through occasional chapters from before Abby’s disappearance, told from her point of view, we learn that Grady is not necessarily a reliable narrator, and the book’s slow unfolding of dread, mystery, and then truth is both creative and well-paced. Every chapter heading is an oxymoron, like the title, reminding us of the contradictions at the heart of every story.

“Nasty little fellows…always get their comeuppance,” a movie character once said. Deeply satisfying.

Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025

ISBN: 9781250337788

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024

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