A tantalizing puzzle starring a truly lovable protagonist.
Framed for murder, an optimistic social outcast must prove his innocence.
As the book opens, the collapse of a rugged hillside in Normandy reveals a trio of skeletons who seem to have died in the same place but at different times. Then we flash back to five months earlier, as Jamal Salaoui is attempting to climb “the highest cliff in Europe.” As a Muslim, he’s been a scapegoat his entire life. At the Saint Antoine Therapeutic Institute of Bagnolet, where he works, he’s often unfairly accused of neglecting his teenage clients. When he spots a distressed young woman dangerously close to the cliff’s edge, he’s unable to stop her from leaping to her death. At this point, Jamal, now accused of murder, takes over the narrative. After he ventures down to examine the body, things become more complicated. A woman named Denise and her male companion, whom Jamal dubs Xanax, arrive, eyeing him suspiciously. They’re soon followed by laconic police captain Piroz. A cursory look at the dead woman reveals that she’s naked under her coat and that she’s been raped and that someone had also tried to strangle her. Then an anonymous person mails him newspaper clippings, case notes, and witness statements at the hotel where he's staying, seemingly about the tragedy on the cliff, but when he looks more closely he sees that the article is a decade old. A second flashback spotlights this earlier, identical crime, also investigated by Piroz. As evidence piles up against him, Jamal and intrepid postdoctoral fellow Mona use their wits and the internet to ferret out the real killer. Bussi creates a devilish nesting-doll plot that involves a sudokulike number square, ghosts, and surprising family connections.
A tantalizing puzzle starring a truly lovable protagonist.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-60945-612-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: World Noir
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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
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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