An appealing hero leads a spirited cast in this diverting crime tale.
Looking into a jail explosion, a Florida investigative reporter/publisher discovers political corruption and murder in this thriller sequel.
Walker Holmes has been on a perpetual drinking binge for quite some time. His regretful condition stems from his guilt over Rachel Townsend, a college student and rape victim who had gone to him for help. After Walker published an article on human trafficking in his alt-weekly, Pensacola Insider, Lester Judson, one of the men who assaulted Rachel, abducted and murdered her. Walker finally comes out of his funk once a severe storm floods his Florida town. But what really puts him back on the investigative track is an explosion at the local county jail that kills several people and injures many others. Sheriff Ron Frost doesn’t seem keen on investigating the accident, but perhaps even more shocking is the news that he and the chief deputy were inexplicably absent on the night of the blast. Still, the public wants answers, and that includes Walker’s ex-wife, whose police officer brother died in the explosion. Sadly, Frost, who’s running for reelection, is anything but cooperative, as he despises Walker, whom he blames for an exposé that led to his brother’s suicide. Walker, his trusty staff, and a handful of friends start digging and, before long, uncover corruption in the sheriff’s office. Those who don’t want their crimes revealed try intimidation and worse, and one of Walker’s pals winds up dead. Meanwhile, Walker continuously receives texts from Lester, who blatantly taunts and threatens the reporter.
In this second novel to feature Walker, the series protagonist is flawed but sympathetic. For example, Rachel’s murder dredges up memories of Walker’s dead fiancee, whose kidnapping and murder two decades earlier remain unsolved. At the same time, it’s painful to watch him drink excessively while his habitual retorts provoke many of the punches that Walker endures. The strongest among the cast are Walker’s allies, particularly his female friend Dare Evans, who refuses to give up on him, no matter how deep in the bottle he falls. Nevertheless, the most indelible character is Walker’s chocolate Lab mix, Big Boy, whose steadfast loyalty is a welcome contrast to the human characters’ underhandedness. Less nuanced are the villains, consisting primarily of police officers who are aggressive, transparently racist, and amoral. Their crimes include arresting someone on unquestionably trumped-up charges. Still, they’re definitely a danger to Walker and all of his comrades. Outzen excels at detailing the environment, especially the town in the aftermath of the destructive storm. Some businesses suffer such damage that they close down for weeks or longer while Walker’s loft becomes home to a few members of his temporarily homeless staff. The loft situation sparks comic relief, as there’s apparently a looming dispute between Big Boy and a feline houseguest. The tale boasts a bit of mystery since the killers responsible for a murder or two later in the story aren’t immediately apparent. And though identifying the culprits isn’t difficult, watching a determined Walker search for solid evidence is certainly gratifying.
An appealing hero leads a spirited cast in this diverting crime tale. (author bio)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-941768-50-1
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Waterside Productions
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
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 vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.
When a man accused of rape turns up dead, an Early American town seeks justice amid rumors and controversy.
Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here. As Martha tells her patient in an opening chapter set in 1789, “You need not fear….In all my years attending women in childbirth, I have never lost a mother.” This track record grows in numerous compelling scenes of labor and delivery, particularly one in which Martha has to clean up after the mistakes of a pompous doctor educated at Harvard, one of her nemeses in a town that roils with gossip and disrespect for women’s abilities. Supposedly, the only time a midwife can testify in court is regarding paternity when a woman gives birth out of wedlock—but Martha also takes the witness stand in the rape case against a dead man named Joshua Burgess and his living friend Col. Joseph North, whose role as judge in local court proceedings has made the victim, Rebecca Foster, reluctant to make her complaint public. Further complications are numerous: North has control over the Ballard family's lease on their property; Rebecca is carrying the child of one of her rapists; Martha’s son was seen fighting with Joshua Burgess on the day of his death. Lawhon weaves all this into a richly satisfying drama that moves suspensefully between childbed, courtroom, and the banks of the Kennebec River. The undimmed romance between 40-something Martha and her husband, Ephraim, adds a racy flair to the proceedings. Knowing how rare the quality of their relationship is sharpens the intensity of Martha’s gaze as she watches the romantic lives of her grown children unfold. As she did with Nancy Wake in Code Name Hélène (2020), Lawhon creates a stirring portrait of a real-life heroine and, as in all her books, includes an endnote with detailed background.
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780385546874
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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