A fun and compelling time-travel thriller.
In this time-travel sequel, a man gets another chance to save his wife’s life.
Three years ago, Nick Quinn was given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to save his wife, Julia, from certain death, a nightmarish time-traveling experience that only he remembers. But now it happens again as he witnesses his beloved Julia—and many others—die after a horrific terrorist attack during the Fourth of July weekend celebrations. As the bodies pile up, a dying friend hands him the antique pocket watch that doubles as a time-traveling gadget, and Nick has a new shot at saving Julia and preventing a terrible disaster from happening. But just like before, the time-traveling rules are less than straightforward. Nick has only 12 hours to fix things, but in reverse and one hour at a time. There are no do-overs once the watch stops after the 12-hour period. As Nick desperately attempts to save Julia over and over again, hour after hour, events spiral out of control, and it soon becomes clear that there is more at stake than his wife’s life. There’s a sinister plot that could engender worldwide political consequences. Nick discovers that there is a second watch and another time traveler following in his tracks, but whether he is friend or foe remains to be seen. This stand-alone sequel to Doetsch’s The 13th Hour (2015) is a time-travel thriller told in reverse, starting with the final chapter and going backward. As the story progresses (or rather, regresses), the taut, well-conceived plot unravels and reforms with twisty surprises and elements of politics, revenge, and Machiavellian villainy. While the time-traveling mechanism remains entirely unexplained and Nick often comes across as a one-note character (“Please help me save my wife”), the story truly excels with its engaging, nonstop pursuit of the truth. No one can be trusted in this genuinely intriguing whodunit. The narrative hops between Nick and Julia as well as a few other characters whose importance to the story varies depending on the roles they ultimately play.
A fun and compelling time-travel thriller.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63758-306-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Permuted Press
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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