A grim and engrossing procedural with a stellar cast.
A convict takes over her identical twin sister’s life in New Orleans, only to arouse the suspicions of a clever, intuitive detective in Zappa’s debut thriller.
Veronica Westbrook has never met her twin, Ann Livingston, as they were adopted at birth by two separate families. While serving time in prison for running a con on a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, Veronica receives a letter from Ann, who hopes that they can connect. Veronica has no interest in a reunion, but she does respond favorably to the fact that Ann has a wealthy husband, Ben. She concocts a plan to steal her sister’s identity, which, soon after her release, entails shadowing and then murdering Ann. Veronica subsequently fakes a car accident and resultant amnesia—as Ann—so she can convince Ben and his family of her identity long enough to swipe millions. However, homicide detective Tammy Jo Crowder thinks that there’s a possibility someone ran “Ann” off the road, but as she investigates further, she starts to think that the accident victim intentionally drove her car into a tree. Then she finds a notable discrepancy in some medical records suggests that the woman claiming to be Ann isn’t Ann. Ben, meanwhile, is also wary, as he’s noticed subtle differences in his wife’s personality. Complicating Veronica’s plan further is that fact that her former cellmate, Sarah Booth, is out of prison; she’s privy to the con and demands a piece of the pie. After transferring funds to a Swiss bank account, Veronica stages a suicide for a clean escape. But the cautious Crowder digs deeper to prove Veronica is on a crime spree.
Zappa fills this often somber but energetic tale with wonderfully complex characters. Veronica isn’t a one-note villain; she’s a sociopath who doesn’t experience a normal human range of emotion, and the story touches on her background (namely, regarding her and Ann’s biological mother). At the same time, Crowder isn’t a squeaky-clean hero; at one point, for instance, she acquires the aforementioned medical records illegally. She’s nevertheless an admirable detective who resists when her superiors want to close the case; readers will, of course, cheer her on, knowing that her conjectures are often spot-on. As Veronica’s scheme ultimately takes her out of the United States, new characters appear to great effect, including someone who’s gunning for the con woman, Will Goodman. The dialogue-heavy story predominantly consists of Veronica executing con-game manipulations and Crowder mulling over case details, but it generally maintains a fast pace. Indeed, Zappa largely eschews graphic depictions of sex and murder. Even during the final act, which includes confrontations between multiple characters, the author doesn’t linger on violence. Unfortunately, there are some blunders that are particularly noticeable as the detective delves into the twins’ history. For example, the age of Ann’s daughter, Meg, doesn’t match her date of birth.Although this novel works as a stand-alone, the author leaves open the possibility of a sequel.
A grim and engrossing procedural with a stellar cast.Pub Date: July 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-922329-04-2
Page Count: 356
Publisher: AIA Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.
Travel writer Lo Blacklock is back. Ten years after the events of The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), she's attending the opening of a lavish Swiss hotel when, once again, a mystery intervenes.
A decade after she almost died on a luxury cruise and ended up exposing a murder plot, travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock is trying to get back into the business post-Covid-19 and post–maternity leave. When she's invited to an exclusive hotel launch by the Leidmann Group on the shores of Switzerland’s gorgeous Lake Geneva, her supportive husband, Judah, insists that she should go, and her old boss, Rowan, says that if Lo can score an interview with the reclusive Marcus Leidmann, she’ll publish it in the Financial Times. Leaving Judah and the kids at home in New York, Lo is surprised by a last-minute upgrade to first class, which kicks off her trip in style. The hotel is appropriately awe-inspiring in both scenic location and effortless luxury, and Lo starts to put the memories of last trip’s trauma behind her, thinking that maybe she can just enjoy the experience this time. But then, at dinner, she's surprised to see at least three guests who were also on that original cruise, and when she finds a mysterious note in her room saying "Please come to suite 11 as soon as possible," she gets another shock. To quote William Faulkner, she realizes that “the past is never dead,” and soon Lo is careening across Europe on her way to England, only to find herself embroiled in another murder. The back half of the novel offers her the opportunity to continue her amateur sleuthing, and while she avoids much of the physical danger that plagued her on the cruise a decade ago, she is in very real legal trouble. This is the prolific Ware’s first sequel, and it's fun to spend time with Lo again, as she's both savvy and kindhearted. Unfortunately, the mystery is not as atmospheric and gripping as usual for Ware, though even a lesser Ruth Ware thriller is still worth reading.
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781668025628
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
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