A surprisingly humane assemblage of unforgettable characters, a fun house plot, and sharply observed societal shortcomings.
Two detectives take on a bizarre case with suspicious origins and increasingly personal ramifications in Canning’s mystery novel.
This satiric, at times surreal mystery plunges two detectives into a case involving (but not limited to) experts in public manipulation, corrupt corporate moguls, anarchic artist and feminist groups, assorted crooks, a movie star with alleged cannibalistic tendencies, a search for a rumored-to-be-lethal stockpile of Vietnam War–era Agent Orange somewhere in Southern California, a secret organization with global reach…and a fictional cameo appearance by Tom Hanks. That this wild ride doesn’t spin out of control is down to the sure hand of the author, who balances the antic plot with unexpected heart. This element is personified by Teddy, one of the owners of the Lint Detective Agency, located in a Los Angeles strip mall. Teddy, a “Black Mr. Rogers in an eyepatch,” is a one-eyed, cardigan-wearing “believer in the direct application of compassion.” His protective brother, Ralph, of seeming Mediterranean heritage, is athletic and tough. They bonded as young children after being kidnapped by a twisted cult leader to whom Teddy lost his eye. (Ralph lost a less visible part of his anatomy.) Their reputation for investigative alacrity brings them a client who attempts to bolster his dubious claim of being a CIA agent by bringing actor Tom Hanks with him for a brief, paid appearance as his “legitimacy catalyst.” Canning weaves dark humor, occasional gritty violence, and barbed observations of societal ills into an odyssey of discovery that culminates in a riotous clash of gun-toting feminist “gynarchists”—artists who create public disruptions (“sonic incontinence,” anyone?)—and an “invisible government” of elite corporate manipulators whose mantra is to appeal “to emotion over intellect, bias over information.” A reunion with a sister cult survivor—a secret held by the East LA grocer who rescued and adopted the brothers—and a bittersweet choice facing Teddy provide additional enjoyable texture to the mix.
A surprisingly humane assemblage of unforgettable characters, a fun house plot, and sharply observed societal shortcomings.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9798323893928
Page Count: 261
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
