Part Western, part mystery, all action.
Self-described cattle cop Tucker Snow and his kid brother, Harley, stumble into yet another case that takes them a long way from cattle.
Tuck’s job description as special ranger for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association may not sound very exciting, but he keeps finding new ways to get into trouble. The latest involves the death of rancher Mitch Ramsey, who’d already lost a leg to cancer, and the sudden sale of his place to a shadowy collective. Wendel Cross, an agent for ChemShale, hints that he’s willing to pay Tuck plenty for certain information he never quite describes, and he indicates that he’s in a position to make Tuck’s life miserable if he doesn’t help out. Tuck’s life, of course, has already been miserable ever since the death of his wife and younger daughter in a collision with a car driven by a meth addict, but at least he and Harley have recovered Chloe, his remaining daughter, from the abusive meth dealer who kidnapped her. Piqued by Cross’ challenge, Tuck looks around for signs of criminal activity in Red River County and finds not only the usual cattle rustling, one round of which serves as a prologue to his latest case, but a mind-boggling array of higher-tech felonies. The leading players include perfect heroes, dastardly villains, in-betweeners, conspirators who mix virtuous and evil impulses, and free agents who can turn on a dime from bad guys to good. The plotting is erratic, but the pattern behind all the crimes and misdemeanors is clear: “The whole world is made from petroleum products” and suffers from the unimaginable harms they cause.
Part Western, part mystery, all action.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9781728256733
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.
A routine break-in at the home of Sûreté homicide chief Armand Gamache leads slowly but surely to the revelation of a potentially calamitous threat to all Québec.
At first it seems as if nothing at all triggered the burglar alarm at Gamache’s home in Three Pines; it was literally a false alarm. It’s not till he receives a package containing his summer jacket that Gamache realizes someone really did get into his house, choosing to steal exactly this one item and return it with a cryptic note referring to “some malady…water” and “Angelica stems.” Having already refused to meet with Jeanne Caron, chief of staff to Marcus Lauzon, a powerful politician who’s already taken vengeance on Gamache and his family for not expunging his child’s criminal record, Gamache now agrees to meet with Charles Langlois, a marine biologist with ties to Caron who confesses to a leading role in stealing Gamache’s jacket. Their meeting ends inconclusively for Gamache, who’s convinced that Langlois is hiding something weighty, and all too conclusively for Langlois, who’s killed by a hit-and-run driver as he leaves. The news that Langlois had been investigating a water supply near the abbey of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups sends Gamache scurrying off to the abbey, where the plot steadily thickens until he’s led to ask how “an old recipe for Chartreuse” can possibly be connected to “a terrorist plot to poison Québec’s drinking water.” That’s a great question, and answering it will take the second half of this story, which spins ever more intricate connections among leading players that become deeply unsettling.
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250328137
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Expert, but unsurprising.
The death of an old friend who was more than a friend sends Dr. Kay Scarpetta down her latest rabbit hole.
If every body tells a story, the corpse of 7-year-old Luna Briley sings the blues. On top of the many signs of ongoing physical abuse, there’s the fatal gunshot wound to her head. Ryder and Piper Briley, the wealthy and powerful parents who didn’t call the police until after their daughter died, insist that Luna’s death was an accident, or maybe a suicide. Scarpetta doesn’t think so, and her refusal to release the body to the Brileys’ hand-picked mortician moves them to legal action against her as Virginia’s chief medical examiner. You’d think it would be a relief to put this case aside for another when Scarpetta’s niece, Secret Service agent Lucy Farinelli, calls her and ferries her by helicopter to an abandoned Oz theme park owned by Ryder Briley, but this one’s even more heartbreaking. Scarpetta is there to examine the body of astrophysicist Sal Giordano, her close friend and former lover, who was evidently kidnapped, held in captivity for several hours, and tossed out of an unidentified aircraft. The leading suspects are the Brileys; Carrie Grethen, Lucy’s sociopathic ex-lover, with whom Scarpetta has repeatedly tangled in the past; and the UFO that dumped Giordano’s body without leaving the usual traces for air-traffic technologies to pick up. The multiple rounds of physical examinations Scarpetta conducts on both victims are every bit as meticulous and gripping as fans would expect; the killer’s identity is neither surprising nor interesting, but Cornwell juggles her trademark forensics, and the paranormal hints she’s become increasingly invested in, more dexterously than usual.
Expert, but unsurprising.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781538770382
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK TO SCREEN
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