A legal thriller with some uneven characterizations redeemed by a satisfying conclusion.
An elderly woodsman’s will leads to a legal fight over his valuable farmstead in Searle’s mystery novel.
Minnesota newsman Boston Meade interviews Leif Nielsen, a former forest ranger, who represents the last of a dying breed of woodsmen. Leif is determined to protect his farmstead on Tarn Lake, one of the last undeveloped pieces of land in the area. When a bout of pneumonia lands Leif in the hospital, the value of his property attracts the attention of his brother, Harald Nielsen, and Harald’s ambitious wife, Regina. They draft a will for Leif that gives Harald power of attorney. When Leif dies suddenly, the Nielsens are enraged to discover that Leif went behind their backs and left his estate to a professor, Sandy Brewster, who had been like a son to him. The Nielsens plan to contest the will on the grounds that Leif was mentally incompetent, and they intend to fight dirty. Sandy needs the support of allies like Meade if he is to honor Leif’s wishes. But how far are the Nielsens willing to go? The heart of the story is Sandy’s fight for Leif’s legacy—unfortunately, this theme is often overshadowed by the cartoonishly villainous exploits of Harald and Regina. (Regina, especially, increasingly becomes a man-eating cliche as the story progresses, and the time the author spends on the couple seems wasted.) The passages about Leif’s passion for the land contain the book’s most artful prose: “He pecked out descriptions of hanging gardens with a few flowers, grass and ferns clinging to tiny ledges…Each thin stratum of rock read like a page from half a billion years of planetary history.” Sandy’s task in the story is to prevent this beauty from being lost to Harald and Regina’s scheming—the narrative should have followed his example. Still, it takes a skilled writer to make a legal battle over a will a page-turner; Searle deftly fills potentially dry conversations about land preservation with drama and tension.
A legal thriller with some uneven characterizations redeemed by a satisfying conclusion.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781960250964
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Calumet Editions
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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