by B. P. Noland ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2012
A generally effective page-turner armed with procedural detail.
In Noland’s debut thriller, Ron Steadman is running for re-election as mayor of Centerville, N.M., when a young woman turns up dead outside his campaign headquarters.
Making matters worse, the victim previously flirted with him and had a subsequent public confrontation with Ron’s wife, Val. Now, Val, a medical researcher specializing in stem-cell technology, is the prime suspect in the murder. As the police work on solving the case, Ron and Val try to clear her name while keeping his campaign alive; they wonder if perhaps the dead woman worked for one of Ron’s political opponents. Despite quickly arriving at its tense premise, the book is slow to build interest. There’s a lot of romantic intrigue early on—particularly between Ron, Val and Steve, Val’s charming, younger lab assistant—but those developments don’t go anywhere or tie in with the larger story. Around the midway point, however, things start to pick up when a political assassination occurs, leading back to a Mexican drug cartel; the investigation tracks a professional hit man back and forth across the border. The “author,” B.P. Noland, is a pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team with experience in politics and medical research, which inform the satisfying amount of detail provided in the text. The effectiveness of the detail is particularly evident in the book’s realistic, robust view of local politics, presented as a balance of media relations, public policy and ambition. Also well observed are the sections dealing with the attempts of local and federal authorities to interrogate and plea bargain with murder suspects; the specifics don’t skimp on the nitty-gritty of the process. Yet the dialogue is stilted at times, and there are some improbable developments—Steve being allowed to assist in the police investigation, for instance. However, those problems don’t derail the overall narrative.
A generally effective page-turner armed with procedural detail.Pub Date: April 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475901122
Page Count: 300
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Tana French ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
An absorbing crime yarn.
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New York Times Bestseller
A divorced American detective tries to blend into rural Ireland in this sequel to The Searcher (2020).
In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there might be gold in the nearby mountain with a vein that might run through some of their properties. (What, no leprechauns?) “It’s not sheep shite you’ll be smelling in a few months’ time, man,” he tells a farmer. “It’s champagne and caviar.” Some people have fun fantasizing about sudden riches, but they know better. Johnny’s pursuer, Cillian Rushborough, comes to town, and Johnny tries to convince him he could get rich by purchasing people’s land. Alas, someone bashes Rushborough’s brains in, and now there’s a murder mystery. The plot is a bit of a stretch, but the characters and their relationships work well. Trey detests Johnny for not being in her life, and now that he’s back, she neither wants nor needs him. She gets on much better with Cal. Still, she’s a testy teenager when she thinks someone is not treating her like an adult. Cal is aware of this, and he’s careful how he talks to her. Johnny, not so much: “I swear to fuck, women are only put on this earth to wreck our fuckin’ heads,” he whines about Trey’s mother, briefly forgetting he’s talking to Trey. The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue.
An absorbing crime yarn.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593493434
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
by C.J. Box ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 27, 2024
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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