A satisfying sequel and one of the best legal thrillers of the year.
A routine case leads a former judge into a web of intrigue in Boldt’s novel.
Nearly three years after State Administrative Judge Jason Erickson was injured in a shooting that killed his girlfriend Tara, his life in Wisconsin has resumed a semblance of normalcy, including a steady relationship with lawyer Grace Clarkson. One afternoon, Grace asks for his help with a case involving a coal shipment and storage facility located on Lake Superior that wants to renew its permit; she represents a consortium of local and environmental groups opposed to the renewal. Jason’s involvement in the case unites him with a surprising ally: Earl Franks, a disgraced former lawyer whose gambling addiction led to his involvement with the man who shot Jason and Tara. Though Earl has lost his law license, his relevant case experience is an asset, and he genuinely wants to help Grace and Jason. As the case progresses, Jason’s relationship with Grace falters (“Grace had a certain coldness, a façade that he could seldom get behind”) after he meets Camille, a free-spirited Unitarian minister, and Grace rekindles her relationship with colleague Tim Gergen. When Grace and Jason come to suspect the facility is not adequately following environmental regulations, they work with Camille and Earl to surreptitiously obtain coal samples; what seems like a simple plan goes horribly awry, putting careers—and lives—at risk. Boldt’s sequel to Blue Lake (2022) is a captivating page-turner that balances courtroom drama with a deeper exploration of the characters introduced in the author’s debut. Jason Erickson is a strong protagonist whose journey to rebuild his life after losing Tara provides some poignant moments in the novel. The well-drawn supporting characters include Earl Franks, whose redemption arc is nuanced and compelling; Courtney Sharpe, the attorney representing the coal storage facility who has a personal connection to Earl Franks; and Camille, the compassionate minister who offers Jason another chance at love. While this is a direct sequel to Blue Lake, Boldt expertly weaves enough backstory throughout the narrative to establish the connections between the characters for new readers.
A satisfying sequel and one of the best legal thrillers of the year.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9798891324596
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
It’s just as exhausting as it sounds, but it may be the most ambitious spy novel you’ve ever read.
What happens when an eminent mystery novelist collaborates with an award-winning journalist on a spy thriller? Pretty much everything you can imagine.
While food blogger Alice Li is in retreat from her overbearing mother, famous Chinese dissident Vivien Li, in a restaurant bathroom, the alarm goes off. And not just the fire alarm, but every alarm in the city, the country, and around the world. Their triggering is clearly an act of terrorism, and the silencing of all those alarms, which comes as suddenly and inexplicably as their screeching, is anything but reassuring. Vivien spirits her daughter off to the White House, where Grant McAllister, the director of National Intelligence, informs Alice that her friend and fellow blogger Liam Palmer has just been fished from the Hong Kong harbor. McAllister and Alan Zhou, head of the China Mission Center, are convinced Liam knew something about those alarms, and President Fraser Pardington is determined to do whatever he can to prevent a sequel. He fails, of course, and the second act of global terrorism is even more disastrous than the first. All the president’s men and women initially believe the threat comes from the Chinese government, and Chinese President Chen Jiayang thinks the Americans might be behind it. Alice and Vivien race around the globe to track down the culprit, and what they find will knit together the fates of Alice’s family, the U.S. and China, and the history of the world as we know it.
It’s just as exhausting as it sounds, but it may be the most ambitious spy novel you’ve ever read.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781250412522
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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