Another well-crafted case beautifully built on a foundation of the local geography Doiron knows so well.
Maine Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch’s engagement party is interrupted by a suspicious noise that leads to the discovery of two corpses.
The sound that interrupts the celebration that Mike’s stepfather, tax attorney Neil Turner (who was married to Mike's late mother), is hosting at his lake house for him; his fiancee, Stacey Stevens; her parents; and Neil’s new wife, yoga instructor Jubilee Batchelder, is that of a Jet Ski, which no one’s supposed to be running on the lake after dark. Stacey notes that it’s not Mike’s district or his job, but when he hears the thump of a collision, he ventures out with Neil and Stacey’s father, Charley, a retired game warden, and they find first a severed arm and then the rest of Kipling Whitcomb, the husband of Mouse Island owner Dianne Fenton-Whitcomb, a wealthy invalid who had no idea (or did she?) that her mate was spending Labor Day weekend in their lake house with another woman. That other woman was hair colorist Gina Randazza, 22, whose husband, petty criminal Joey Randazza of the Direwolves motorcycle gang, becomes the instant suspect of choice for Det. Roger Finch of the Maine State Police once her body is also found in the lake. The investigations are awkwardly divided between Finch’s search for Gina’s murderer and Mike’s look at the apparently accidental death of Kip. Further awkwardness is provided by lake constable Galen Webb, whose longing to take an active role in the case is torpedoed by his quick temper and unwillingness to share everything he knows. Could he possibly be at the bottom of all this?
Another well-crafted case beautifully built on a foundation of the local geography Doiron knows so well.Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9781250864390
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
High-concept and highly entertaining.
Fiction writers compete to finish a famous author’s abandoned novel.
Seven writers, all but one published, have received invitations to spend the weekend with crime novelist Arthur Fletch, the world’s most successful author, on his private island off the coast of Scotland. When they arrive at his cliffside castle, they expect to take part in one of the literary salons for which Fletch is famous; instead, they’re greeted by his agent, who informs them that Fletch is dead. Why has there been nothing about this in the press? Because “there are some…loose ends that must be tied up first.” Fletch has left his eagerly anticipated final novel unfinished, so the agent has summoned the writers to the island for a competition: One of them will get to complete Fletch’s book. As premises go, this one’s a humdinger, courtesy of fantasy writer V.E. Schwab and YA author Cat Clarke, here joining forces as Clarke. The story contains an amusing throughline about the indignity of being an uncelebrated novelist; as the agent tells the assembled writers, the contest winner will receive both cash and something equally valuable: “a way out of the midlist.” The novel’s wandering perspective allows each writer to vent their private frustrations, especially with the publishing industry and with the book world’s genre hierarchy (the YA writer among the competitors understands that she and the romance writer are “supposed to support each other against the general snobbishness of the other genres”). Readers who have come for the crimes and the twists, both of which are plentiful, might grow impatient with all the characters’ backstories, but these readers will likely warm to the shop talk, which at its funniest plays like a kvetchy midlist-writers’ support group.
High-concept and highly entertaining.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9780063444614
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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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