A sterling thriller whose flawed protagonist consistently evokes sympathy despite the repugnance of some of his acts.
A broken life barely healed is put to a stern test.
John Bekker was a promising police detective when his wife was raped and murdered in front of their young daughter, Regan. Badly traumatized, Regan spent years in a special home; Bekker found his solace in the bottom of a bottle. Now Bekker is about to marry his sister-in-law, Janet, a nurse with whom a vastly improved teenage Regan is living. Solving his wife’s murder (Sunset, 2012) put Bekker on the road to recovery. Though Janet hates the dangers of his life as a private eye, she asks him to take on a case for Dr. Robert Gordon, a hospital administrator who was still in medical school when his wife died in childbirth and his uncle, a sleazy attorney, helped him sell his newborn daughter to a childless New York couple. Now that Gordon’s dying of cancer, he wants the girl found so he can leave her part of his fortune. Bekker has little trouble finding the Gertz family, who raised Sarah with love. But after graduating from college, the bright young woman vanished from her job in Washington, D.C. With the help of his former partner and an old friend in the FBI, Bekker comes up with the idea that Oliver Koch, a powerful senator from Maine, had Sarah killed. Under pressure, Koch’s devoted assistant, Chad Handler, admits that Sarah was pregnant with Koch’s child and refused to have an abortion but denies that Koch had her murdered. When a professional assassin attacks Bekker and severely beats Janet, he kills the assailant. Despite the dangers of bucking a powerful man and the moral ambiguities involved in protecting his family, Bekker refuses to back down.
Pub Date: July 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4328-2865-3
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Five Star
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
