Overall, a good story with a multilayered hero. The author’s fans won’t be disappointed.
The flawed homicide detective Cooper Devereaux returns for a second outing (False Friend, 2017), this time chasing down a quirky killer in Birmingham, Alabama.
Although Lucas Paltrow, a “mysterious mechanic Good Samaritan,” saves the pregnant Deborah Holt’s life by fixing her car, a year later she’s found dead on her 21st birthday, wrapped up like a present. Devereaux and his longtime partner, Tommy Garretty, are assigned to investigate. Soon Siobhan O’Keefe turns up, killed and wrapped in the same way on her 21st birthday. Later there’s a third victim, and the unknown assailant is dubbed the Birthday Killer. It’s a curious plot that gives the impression the author is straining for something new. One suspect is Deborah's boyfriend, the sarcastically described “guitar legend Thor,” aka Oliver Casey, a “twenty-four carat scumbag.” Others include Paltrow and his co-worker Billy Flynn, who has a sealed juvie record. When Flynn’s house explodes and Devereaux wants to save him, Garretty helpfully advises, “Screw Flynn. The odds are he’s a murdering asshole.” The blistering scene that follows is well-done, as are Devereaux and Flynn by the end of it. A couple of subplots help tie the series together. The dying Chris Lambert, a former Police Academy instructor, plots to blackmail Devereaux, who had a checkered childhood and may be “the spawn of a mass murderer.” Or not. And Devereaux's former girlfriend Alexandra is conflicted about getting back together with him, because “she simply wasn’t comfortable in a relationship with the son of a mass murderer.” Meanwhile, whatever might be revealed about his troubled past, Devereaux has become a good adult. It’s hard to see how the author continues with these subplots—Just how bad was Dad? Will Alexandra ever make up her mind?—without letting them get stale.
Overall, a good story with a multilayered hero. The author’s fans won’t be disappointed.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-59433-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
Readers may wish to tackle this heart-pounding novel in highly populated, well-lit areas—snacks optional.
Some thrillers produce shivers, others trigger goose bumps; Cutter’s graphic offering will have readers jumping out of their skins.
Scoutmaster Dr. Tim Riggs takes his troop for their annual camping trip to Falstaff Island, an uninhabited area not far from their home on Prince Edward Island. The five 14-year-old boys who comprise Troop 52 are a diverse group: popular school jock, Kent, whose father is the chief of police; best friends Ephraim and Max, one the son of a petty thief who’s serving time in prison and the other the son of the coroner who also serves as the local taxidermist; Shelley, an odd loner with a creepy proclivity for animal torture and touching girls’ hair; and Newton, the overweight nerdy kid who’s the butt of the other boys’ jokes. When a skeletal, voracious, obviously ill man shows up on the island the first night of their trip, Tim’s efforts to assist him unleash a series of events which the author describes in gruesome, deliciously gory detail. Tom Padgett is the subject of a scientific test gone horribly wrong, or so it seems, and soon, the Scouts face a nightmare that worms its way into the group and wreaks every kind of havoc imaginable. With no way to leave the island (the boat Tom arrived on is disabled, and the troop was dropped off by a different boat), the boys fight to survive. Cutter’s narrative of unfolding events on the island is supplemented with well-placed interviews, pages from diaries, and magazine and newspaper articles, which provide answers to the reader in bits and pieces—but perhaps more importantly, it also delivers much-needed respites from the intense narrative as the boys battle for their lives on the island. Cutter (who created this work under a pseudonym) packs a powerful punch by plunging readers into gut-wrenching, explicit imagery that’s not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.
Readers may wish to tackle this heart-pounding novel in highly populated, well-lit areas—snacks optional.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1771-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Chavez delivers a fraught if flawed page-turner that attempts too many twists.
A good Samaritan incurs a psychopath’s wrath in this debut thriller.
Veterinarian Cassie Larkin is heading home after a 12-hour shift when someone darts in front of her car, causing her to dump her energy drink. As she pulls over to mop up the mess, her headlights illuminate a couple having a physical altercation. Cassie calls 911, but before help arrives, the man tosses the woman down an embankment. Ignoring the dispatcher’s instructions, Cassie exits the vehicle and intervenes, preventing the now-unconscious woman’s murder. With sirens wailing in the distance, the man warns Cassie: “Let her die, and I’ll let you live.” He then scrambles back to the road and flees in Cassie’s van. Using mug shots, Cassie identifies the thief and would-be killer as Carver Sweet, who is wanted for poisoning his wife. The Santa Rosa police assure Cassie of her safety, but the next evening, her husband, Sam, vanishes while trick-or-treating with their 6-year-old daughter, Audrey. Hours later, he sends texts apologizing and confessing to an affair, but although it’s true that Sam and Cassie have been fighting, she suspects foul play—particularly given the previous night’s events. Cassie files a report with the cops, but they dismiss her concerns, leaving Cassie to investigate on her own. After a convoluted start, Chavez embarks on a paranoia-fueled thrill ride, escalating the stakes while exploiting readers’ darkest domestic fears. The far-fetched plot lacks cohesion and relies too heavily on coincidence to be fully satisfying, but the reader will be invested in learning the Larkin family’s fate through to the too-pat conclusion.
Chavez delivers a fraught if flawed page-turner that attempts too many twists.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-293617-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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