A promising series debut, sometimes humorous, often puzzling, and peopled with believable characters.
A bookstore owner goes all out to save her best friend from a murder charge in this series kickoff from Lillard (A Family for Gracie, 2019, etc.).
Arlo Stanley’s nomadic life with her hippie parents left her with a strong urge to settle down. She chose Sugar Springs, Mississippi, the small town where she’d been allowed to stay for her high school years. Just before the 10th Annual All School Class Reunion, the dead body of former classmate Wallace J. Harrison is found on the sidewalk outside her shop, Books & More. Wally, whose book was a recent New York Times bestseller, had a stunning wife, Daisy James-Harrison, and a lovely mistress/assistant, Inna Kolisnychenko. So did he jump, or was he pushed? Chief Matthew “Mads” Keller was Arlo’s high school squeeze until football broke them up. Like everyone else in Sugar Springs, he knows that Arlo’s best friend, Chloe Carter, the foodie "More" in Books & More, had a child with Wally in high school whom he refused to acknowledge. Taxed with her motive, Chloe admits that Wally came to see her wanting to get back into his son’s life, but she doesn’t think the arrogant Wally would kill himself. When Mads arrests Chloe based on a coffee cup laced with poison mushrooms, Arlo resolves to prove her innocent. When Sam Tucker, the man she turned to after she broke up with Mads, arrives in town to care for his sick mother, Arlo’s life becomes even more complicated as she ponders her relationships with the two men she may still love. Luckily, Arlo’s book club ladies, who’ve been around forever and know every secret in town, are thrilled to help Arlo as she desperately chases down clues.
A promising series debut, sometimes humorous, often puzzling, and peopled with believable characters.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8777-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Mystery, danger, and sexual tension abound in an action-packed thriller that breaks plenty of heads but no new ground.
Sparks fly as a woman with extraordinary abilities fights her attraction to a dangerous freelance consultant.
Dr. Kendra Michaels has worked with former FBI Agent Adam Lynch before (Double Blind, 2018), but she’s furious with him for getting her tossed out of Afghanistan after she sustained a minor wound while trying to root out corruption. Kendra, who was blind until an experimental operation restored her sight at 20, has highly developed senses of smell, hearing, and spatial awareness that she’s used to help the FBI and CIA in many difficult cases. Now, as she returns to the U.S., they have another one she can’t resist investigating. Elaine Wessler and Ronald Kim, both staff members at her old school, the Woodward Academy for the Physically Disabled in Oceanside, California, have been found murdered for no apparent reason, and FBI Special Agent Michael Griffin is anxious to use her skills and inside knowledge. Elaine had been fostering an unusual guide dog, Harley, who's had problems adjusting since the child he was working with was killed in a gas-main explosion. Now that Elaine is gone, his unearthly howls are upsetting the students. Kendra talks her best friend, Olivia, who’s blind, into sharing custody of Harley until they can find him the right home. Meanwhile, she turns up clues the FBI team missed and is rewarded for her efforts with a bomb planted in her car. It turns out to be fake, but it’s still a potent warning to walk away. Returning from Afghanistan to help Kendra, Lynch finds her still angry with him and intent on resisting his charms. Her friend Jessie Mercado, a private eye, turns up to help extricate her from a dangerous situation and sticks around to join the hunt for the killers. It will take all of them, including Harley, to solve the violent, complex case and get the school Kendra loves back on track.
Mystery, danger, and sexual tension abound in an action-packed thriller that breaks plenty of heads but no new ground.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5387-6292-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
As usual, Coben piles on the plot twists, false leads, violent set pieces and climactic surprises with the unfocused...
After six years of spinning jaw-dropping stand-alone thrillers, Coben brings back his sports agent—make that everything agent—Myron Bolitar (Darkest Fear, 2000, etc.) for an encore.
Overhearing high-school senior Erin Wilder, his current ladylove’s daughter, sharing confidences with her friend Aimee Biel about getting driven by wasted friends, Myron Bolitar promises both girls that if they ever need a ride, they can call him and he’ll pick them up, no questions asked. All too soon he gets a chance to deliver. Aimee phones him from midtown Manhattan, where he just happens to be staying, and asks him to drive her to suburban New Jersey. Myron obliges but pushes a bit too hard with the questions, and Aimee vanishes into a strange house. The next day she’s still missing, and in jig time the police, armed with Myron’s credit-card slips and EZ-Pass records, come calling. It turns out that Myron’s not a credible suspect. But because everybody connects Aimee’s disappearance to that of fellow student Katie Rochester three months ago, Myron’s on the hook with some serious people, from Aimee’s parents, who beg him to bring her home, to Katie’s mobbed-up dad, who’s too proud to beg but has other ways of getting him to cooperate.
As usual, Coben piles on the plot twists, false leads, violent set pieces and climactic surprises with the unfocused intensity that have made his thrillers (The Innocent, 2005, etc.) such a hot ticket.Pub Date: April 25, 2006
ISBN: 0-525-94949-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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