by Terry Huebner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 22, 2012
Only a crotchety law school professor would give this legal thriller less than a B+.
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In Huebner’s debut thriller, trial lawyer Ben Lohmeier faces death and double-dealing as he fights to exonerate a friend from a murder she didn’t commit.
When Ben’s close friend Megan Rand Cavallaro is questioned by Chicago police in connection with the murder of their former law professor, Daniel Greenfield, Ben is shocked. His prosecutorial background quickly keys him in to the fact that Megan is the prime suspect. Her decision to retain Ben as counsel thrusts him into a high-profile murder investigation; Ben, who has tried only a few criminal cases as a defense lawyer, is suddenly scrutinizing a crime scene, hiring blood spatter experts, and appearing opposite an ambitious former colleague. He assembles a ragtag defense team to prepare Megan’s case, and, in order to ensure the jury doesn’t find reasonable doubt, Ben scrutinizes everyone in Daniel’s orbit as a possible suspect. His determination to find out who killed Daniel does not waver, even when he learns that Megan is keeping secrets or after he’s attacked by a thug outside his office. Fortunately, Huebner incorporates realistic details about criminal procedure into the narrative without slowing down the story. What does slow down the narrative, however, are lengthy descriptions of car trips and locations. Huebner often provides GPS-level detail about Ben’s travels; when Ben is on the hunt for a witness in Florida, the carefully constructed tension evaporates when Huebner describes Ben’s drive to a courthouse. Similarly, Huebner could significantly streamline his description of the quirky layout of Ben’s office without affecting any necessary information. Repetitive phrasing can hamper the flow of the prose, too, such as the frequent use of “you know” and repeated references to revenge as a dish “best served cold.” However, the author is so skilled at creating suspense that these flaws barely register.
Only a crotchety law school professor would give this legal thriller less than a B+.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470108366
Page Count: 384
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
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
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by Lisa Jewell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2018
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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