Next book

DRAW A HARD LINE

A well-paced thriller that engagingly tangles its hero’s personal and professional lives.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

Murder, meth, and matrimonial discord bedevil a former Texas Ranger in Jimerson’s second series mystery, following White Gold (2022).

Fifty-something E.J. Kane, a former Texas Ranger and now head of security for Devekon Energy, has an arthritic knee, a stressful job, and a damaged family life. The death of his son, Konner, a Marine who died while deployed “half a world away,” marked the beginning of the unraveling of E.J.’s “quilt of a perfect family.” He and his wife, powerful trial lawyer Rebecca Johnson, divorced after the tragedy. E.J. also rescued their daughter, Sharla, a meth addict, after she was abducted and raped by sex traffickers; she now struggles with whether to get an abortion. Because of his difficult family situation, E.J. identifies with the Blakes, whose daughter, Melinda, was murdered a year ago. Crooked Sheriff Benjamin “B.B.” Berryhill can’t be bothered with the Blakes’ unsolved case, but B.B.’s son, a police detective, vows to help, as does E.J. Meanwhile, E.J. is consumed by the fact that Aryan Triangle member and murderer G.H. Burton has been released from prison; his conviction—hard fought by Rebecca—was overturned. This character-driven novel is just as much a tale of family troubles as it is a mystery. A familiar story of meth addiction affectingly spills across the pages, as does the pain of a divorce that one side doesn’t want, in addition to problems of aging. The book’s initial fast pace establishes E.J.’s gruff but helpful character, but he also questions if he’s a lawman who’s outlived his era. The dialogue stays sharp, and descriptions can be strong (“He carried her like a sack of feed swinging wildly”). One flaw is that so much of the story relies on readers knowing what happened in the previous book in the series—or at least requires Jimerson to recap those events. But the author, a Texas attorney, has the real-life experience to back up his storyline, and he gets bonus points for referencing Chuck Norris.

A well-paced thriller that engagingly tangles its hero’s personal and professional lives.

Pub Date: June 11, 2024

ISBN: 9798218409852

Page Count: 310

Publisher: Elwood Jimerson Farms

Review Posted Online: April 22, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 220


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • New York Times Bestseller

Next book

DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 220


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • New York Times Bestseller

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

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 14


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • New York Times Bestseller

Next book

HERE ONE MOMENT

A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 14


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • New York Times Bestseller

What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?

In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either).

A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024

ISBN: 9780593798607

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024

Close Quickview