There’ll be more revelations about Mary’s parents, too, in a twist that threatens to turn this series into backwoods soap...
Half-Cherokee Atlanta ADA Mary Crow (In the Forest of Harm, 2000) returns once more to the woods of North Carolina, where the ghost of her murdered mother competes for attention with present-day miscreants.
Reverend Gerald LeClaire, the guileless prophet of FaithAmerica, thinks God wants him to be president. But his more sinister followers plan to fulfill his prophecy of doom for the false Solomons of the federal bench the old-fashioned way: by murdering a dozen sitting judges, one per month. Unfortunately, the overeager disciple of Sergeant Robert Wurth, the ex–Army man they’ve recruited to turn a camp for young offenders into a training ground for ask-no-questions foot soldiers, got carried away with execution #11, and the FBI is now alert to the threat to #12, Richmond appellate judge Irene Hannah, who practically raised Mary Crow after her parents died. Stung by the notion that justice needs armed guards, Her Honor has refused federal protection, and it’s Mary’s job to talk her into accepting it. But only the dullest readers will be surprised when Mary ends up as Judge Hannah’s protector herself, or when Wurth slips past the cordon FBI agent Daniel Safer has thrown up around the judge’s horse farm, stands over her with the lethal needle inches from her neck, and then decides that killing is too good for her. From this point on, the descent into standard-issue action is swift. The judge vanishes during an innocuous excursion into town; Mary, packed off in disgrace, sneaks back into town and goes hunting for her old friend; Safer hooks up with Jonathan Walkingstick, the ex-lover Mary still pines for, and goes after her; and the nation’s future lies in the hands of a juvenile offender who still hasn’t learned to ask no questions.
There’ll be more revelations about Mary’s parents, too, in a twist that threatens to turn this series into backwoods soap opera.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2002
ISBN: 0-553-80131-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2001
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
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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