A well-crafted mystery and look at small-town Kansas life.
The joys of simple pleasures, the complexity of family life, and the investigation into a local man’s murder weave through this midcentury mystery.
The characters are different and the era is earlier by two decades, but, aside from murder, what connects the first book in Litton’s Kansas Murder Trilogy, King Harvest (2022), and this one is sense of place—rural Kansas (“the smell of rich earth, of worms and roots and growing plants rising in the sunbaked air”). Recent widower Willis Thurman, aided by his peculiar 14-year-old son, Riley, farms that land. Like a lot of boys, Riley crushes on 15-year-old Bonny Marshal. When Bonny’s father, Jack, learns his daughter is pregnant with Willis’ child, he is enraged. So he is naturally the prime suspect when Deputy Guy Craig finds Willis dead in his barn with a head wound and Jack rushing from the scene. After a day on the run, police locate Jack on the ranch of Lyle Sewter—a “man measured by what he owned and what he could buy.” What Lyle couldn’t do is keep his wife away from married Jack; the two once had an affair known around town as “the scandal of ’53.” The popular coach of the Wolves, a baseball team comprised of “sons of working men and farmers,” Jack “The Lion” Marshal had his way with many willing women. Jack tells Guy he touched the murder weapon but didn’t kill Willis; he ran from the barn because he looked guilty. But Sheriff Charlie Simms doesn’t buy it. This character-driven mystery overflows with smart dialogue and rich description. Although hard times and poverty fill many pages, so do small-town pleasures, like watching for Sputnik while lying on soft grass on a summer night. The cast members’ backstories easily lace through the text, and sex, love, and the loss of both are well presented.
A well-crafted mystery and look at small-town Kansas life.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63789-781-2
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Gordian Knot Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
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
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