A vivid depiction of deep-seated Southern corruption with a troubled yet appealing hero.
A public defender gets charged with the murder of a judge in this legal thriller.
Katazyna “Star” Gwiazda, a public defender in Randleman County, North Carolina, is in jail after she “couldn’t stop myself” laughing upon hearing that the judge presiding over her big trial was killed by a car bomb. She despised this judge, a sexual harasser, but Star’s being charged with his murder is clearly a frame-up. Her client, who blew up a deputy’s car “to avenge the killing of a Lumbee boy by the cops,” is bailed out and will testify that she asked about how to build a bomb. Star soon gets out on bail, too, paid for by an anonymous donor; engages a lawyer; and investigates the strange situation, all while musing about her life (she’s originally from Michigan; both parents are dead; and she’s divorced and bipolar). After a couple more deaths happen, Star is put on trial, facing betrayals by her boss and a co-worker and testimony from her psychiatrist and that shifty former client. North Carolina lawyer Charns has penned previous North Carolina–set courtroom dramas, with Bones of Black Saints (2020) and Barrio Butterfly (2021) featuring Star and her high school sweetheart as a legal duo. It’s difficult to know where this book fits into the series—that sweetheart makes a brief appearance here—but this novel stands on its own as a rollicking tale about complex, fish-out-of-water Star. After dealing with rural shenanigans, the captivating protagonist sometimes wears the hockey helmet her father gave her to block out the world. While the lack of true accountability for some misdeeds is rather surprising, this reflects, as Star at one point notes, “a perverse sense of justice only a public defender could understand.”
A vivid depiction of deep-seated Southern corruption with a troubled yet appealing hero.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2022
ISBN: 9798358148499
Page Count: 187
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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