by Amy Gentry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 2, 2021
A tense psychological thriller with an intriguing setup but too many far-fetched twists at the end.
Grad students are tasty snacks in the shark tank of faculty ambition.
Gentry sets her third thriller in the world of academe, where we find a slew of powerful female characters and some male eye candy. Mackenzie Claire Woods has just finished her keynote at an academic conference in LA and is about to take a young fellow she knows only as "Harvard" up to her room in the SkyLoft Hotel when she spots her long-estranged childhood best friend. Gwen Whitney was the princess to Mac's pauper, her escape route from a hardscrabble childhood that included junior beauty pageants, her father's abandonment, her mother's drug addiction, and a disabled sister. Both Mac and Gwen went on to graduate school at The Program, a taxing course of study in rarefied disciplines, painted with a welcome touch of satire. Coming from her family, is it any wonder grad student Mac can't make heads or tails of topics like Diasporic Feminisms, Dualities of Motion and Emotion, and Introduction to Economimesis? Most problematically, she can't get through a tome titled "Ethical Negation," written by the faculty star, Bethany Ladd, a sexy genius everyone is competing to impress and whose seminar is offered at the same time as Mac's restaurant shift. Since the poor girl is not only putting herself through school, but supporting her mother and sister, she desperately needs a fellowship Bethany seems to control. The narrative hopscotches between the challenges of grad school and the unfolding drama, 10 years later, in the SkyLoft Hotel. Mac sends Harvard up to her room by himself and steps out of the elevator to waylay Gwen. They have a heart-to-heart during which Mac gets blackout drunk and wakes up unable to remember just how much she confessed about some terrible incident in the past: suspense by alcohol. As the story races to its conclusion, a racism issue with another student is needlessly tacked on and believability is tossed to the winds.
A tense psychological thriller with an intriguing setup but too many far-fetched twists at the end.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-12654-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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New York Times Bestseller
by Tana French ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
An absorbing crime yarn.
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New York Times Bestseller
A divorced American detective tries to blend into rural Ireland in this sequel to The Searcher (2020).
In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there might be gold in the nearby mountain with a vein that might run through some of their properties. (What, no leprechauns?) “It’s not sheep shite you’ll be smelling in a few months’ time, man,” he tells a farmer. “It’s champagne and caviar.” Some people have fun fantasizing about sudden riches, but they know better. Johnny’s pursuer, Cillian Rushborough, comes to town, and Johnny tries to convince him he could get rich by purchasing people’s land. Alas, someone bashes Rushborough’s brains in, and now there’s a murder mystery. The plot is a bit of a stretch, but the characters and their relationships work well. Trey detests Johnny for not being in her life, and now that he’s back, she neither wants nor needs him. She gets on much better with Cal. Still, she’s a testy teenager when she thinks someone is not treating her like an adult. Cal is aware of this, and he’s careful how he talks to her. Johnny, not so much: “I swear to fuck, women are only put on this earth to wreck our fuckin’ heads,” he whines about Trey’s mother, briefly forgetting he’s talking to Trey. The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue.
An absorbing crime yarn.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593493434
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
by C.J. Box ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 27, 2024
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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