An engaging, sophisticated, and wide-ranging whodunit.
In this third installment of a mystery series, two actors associated with a stage production of Romeo and Juliet die, and an interim artistic director must solve the murders before opening night.
Larkin Day has already solved two homicides in novels by Dieker. Now, Larkin is the interim artistic director of the Summer Shakespeare Festival under the aegis of Howell College in Iowa. The former festival director and the previous Juliet were sacked for having an adulterous affair. The ex-director’s daughter, Rebecca Morris, has been given the job of assistant props master as a kind of legacy privilege. Because she is a minor, a big deal is made of her having to be chaperoned at all times. Soon, Tyler Mackintosh, the production’s Romeo, is found dead, having drunk from a cyanide-spiked potion flask. Was it meant for the actor playing Juliet? Later, the festival’s original Juliet—the disgraced one—is found stabbed, but she was actually poisoned beforehand. Then there is the matter of real daggers versus fake ones, assorted potion bottles, and lots of prop switching, either accidental or intentional. And along the way, there are various romances, jealousies, and red herrings. Dieker is a master of obfuscation. The enjoyable story raises a host of tantalizing questions. Whodunit and why? And will the show go on? The author is a versatile writer with many interests, including financial planning and personal development, which she weaves into the book. For example, readers observe Larkin always pursuing her elusive best self. (The protagonist’s best friend, freelance writer Anni Morgan, seems to be Dieker’s avatar.) The author can skillfully turn a phrase, as when a well-to-do character comes out with a “tinkly, wealthy laugh” to mask her careless irresponsibility. Another plus is that readers get a close reading of Shakespeare and a look at the many ambiguities and subtleties in Romeo and Juliet that an artistic director must deal with. Dieker appears delightfully curious about virtually everything, and the audience profits from that. There is even a short story appended as a kind of lagniappe. But the intriguing mind games that are played throughout the novel may be a bit too subtle for some readers.
An engaging, sophisticated, and wide-ranging whodunit.Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9781959565130
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Shortwave Media
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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PERSPECTIVES
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
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