A knotty detective story from a skilled author.
Violence and tragedy stalk a rookie homicide detective in this police procedural.
“It was a good night to kill a lawyer.” So begins this terse and twisty novel full of dialogue and brisk exposition. Who needs exposition when even someone sitting and stewing at home reads like an action scene? Brenham moves readers quickly through scenes as Fort Worth, Texas, homicide detective Kit Hanover tackles her first murder case, partnered with unflappable and bigoted fellow investigator Wade Shepard. The mystery involves the aforementioned attorney, whose corpse is fished out of Marine Creek Lake. The cops’ relationship doesn’t start well, as Wade doesn’t like having a new partner and has sexist and anti-Native American tendencies; Kit was an adoptee from a Comanche reservation in Oklahoma. Kit sometimes ignores his comments, and other times returns his insults: “I figured you to be a Walmart greeter, not a detective,” she tells Wayne after he says that he “figured [her] for a school teacher on the reservation.” One can be forgiven, at first, for thinking the characters are stuck in a remake of The Enforcer (1976), with Wayne and Kit in the roles played by Clint Eastwood and Tyne Daly. However, after the obligatory rookie’s-first-autopsy scene, Kit is moved to the vice squad, and before the murder victim is identified, she’s walking the streets undercover. Brenham shifts gears so quietly that readers will only notice it in retrospect. The first indication of his storytelling prowess feels almost pedestrian, as he tells of a man in a pickup truck slowing down near the undercover Kit, and then hurriedly speeding away. Did he make her as a cop, or did he recognize her as Kit? After all, she thinks she’s seen him somewhere before. Aside from the first line, the book features few memorable sentences; fortunately, that line is enough to grab the reader, who may go back through the book after the first frenzied read to see how deftly the story is set in motion—and how the clues fit together before everything falls apart.
A knotty detective story from a skilled author.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2023
ISBN: 9798862890624
Page Count: 425
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.
After the events of Book of Night (2022), Charlie Hall is forced to hunt down the perpetrator of a terrible massacre.
Charlie Hall is the Hierophant: It’s her job to be tethered to a powerful, independent shadow—a “Blight”— and hunt down other Blights for the Cabals, the heads of their respective shadow-magic specialties. The Cabals use the difficult job of Hierophant as a punishment, but Charlie agreed to take it on so she could be the person tethered to Vince, aka Red, the Blight who posed as a human and ended up dating and falling in love with Charlie. The Cabal leaders used magic to steal the part of Red’s memory that contained his relationship with Charlie, and so Charlie is determined to steal Red’s memories back. And she needs to move fast, because if Red doesn’t remember loving her, he just might be OK with Charlie being killed if it means his own freedom. Meanwhile, Mr. Punch, a terrifying Cabal leader who specializes in using shadow magic to possess other people’s bodies, has a job for Charlie: He wants her to find the culprit behind a terrible massacre that was attributed to a cult. He suspects that the people were actually killed by a Blight, and he doesn’t want the Cabals to face the blowback if the truth becomes public. Mr. Punch could do terrible things to Charlie if she fails, but if she succeeds, he’ll help Charlie and Red be free of the Cabals for good. The sophomore novel in a series is always tough, but this sequel proves that the second book can be even better than the first. Black turns the screws on the magical world she set up in Book 1, creating complicated political motives between Charlie and the Cabal leaders and making the question of what it means for a shadow, like Red, to have their own consciousness more interesting. Veteran con artist Charlie makes some truly brilliant moves, especially toward the end, where the last few chapters have one terrific surprise after the other.
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250812223
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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