Full of memorable character portraits and incisive observations on wealth and social class, this stylish departure by the...
When a veteran detective is shot while on special assignment, uncovering the truth involves layers of deceit and secrets that might be best left unrevealed.
Shortly after establishing the Operational Command Unit, which looks into crimes perpetrated by the rich, DS George Quinn has been shot and lies in a coma. It falls to DI Blake Reynolds to figure out what happened and perhaps continue Quinn’s work. His assignment appears to be nearly impossible, both because Quinn, a star homicide detective, had carte blanche within the department to keep his investigation under wraps and because Quinn’s personal assistant, Victoria Clifford, is equally secretive. Even after Reynolds’ suspicions about Victoria are confirmed by a meeting at Scotland Yard, he finds himself attracted by her crisp efficiency. Martin’s thriller unfolds as a study of class and character. Quinn, who is gay, lives in London’s posh Mayfair district; Reynolds is from something like the wrong side of the tracks. The cat-and-mouse game between the two adversaries, whose perspectives are explored in alternating chapters, adds an extra dimension to Reynolds’ dogged probe long before he unearths the investigation Quinn had been working on: a complex case involving two uber-wealthy families, the eponymous jewel, and the grand dames of each clan who lay claim to it.
Full of memorable character portraits and incisive observations on wealth and social class, this stylish departure by the author of the long-running Jim Stringer series (Night Train to Jamalpur, 2014, etc.) is full of droll humor.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-571-28820-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.
Devastated by her mother’s death, Brett Bohlinger consumes a bottle of outrageously expensive Champagne and trips down the stairs at the funeral luncheon. Add embarrassed to devastated. Could things get any worse? Of course they can, and they do—at the reading of the will.
Instead of inheriting the position of CEO at the family’s cosmetics firm—a position she has been groomed for—she’s given a life list she wrote when she was 14 and an ultimatum: Complete the goals, or lose her inheritance. Luckily, her mother, Elizabeth, has crossed off some of the more whimsical goals, including running with the bulls—too risky! Having a child, buying a horse, building a relationship with her (dead) father, however, all remain. Brad, the handsome attorney charged with making sure Brett achieves her goals, doles out a letter from her mother with each success. Warmly comforting, Elizabeth’s letters uncannily—and quite humorously—predict Brett’s side of the conversations. Brett grudgingly begins by performing at a local comedy club, an experience that proves both humiliating and instructive: Perfection is overrated, and taking risks is exhilarating. Becoming an awesome teacher, however, seems impossible given her utter lack of classroom management skills. Teaching homebound children offers surprising rewards, though. Along Brett’s journey, many of the friends (and family) she thought would support her instead betray her. Luckily, Brett’s new life is populated with quirky, sharply drawn characters, including a pregnant high school student living in a homeless shelter, a psychiatrist with plenty of time to chat about troubled children, and one of her mother’s dearest, most secret companions. A 10-step program for the grief-stricken, Brett’s quest brings her back to love, the best inheritance of all.
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.Pub Date: July 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-345-54087-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Twenty New England horror shorts by Stephen King (and a painfully lofty introduction by old pro John D. MacDonald). King, of course, is the 30-year-old zillionaire who poured the pig's blood on Carrie, woke the living dead in 'Salem's Lot, and gave a bad name to precognition in The Shining. The present collection rounds up his magazine pieces, mainly from Cavalier, and also offers nine stories not previously published. He is as effective in the horror vignette as in the novel. His big opening tale, "Jerusalem's Lot"—about a deserted village—is obviously his first shot at 'Salem's Lot and, in its dependence on a gigantic worm out of Poe and Lovecraft, it misses the novel's gorged frenzy of Vampireville. But most of the other tales go straight through you like rats' fangs. "Graveyard Shift" is about cleaning out a long unused factory basement that has a subbasement—a hideous colony of fat giant blind legless rats that are mutating into bats. It's a story you may wish you hadn't read. You'll enjoy the laundry mangle that becomes possessed and begins pressing people into bedsheets (don't think about that too much), a flu bug that destroys mankind and leaves only a beach blanket party of teenagers ("Night Surf"), and a beautiful lady vampire and her seven-year-old daughter abroad in a Maine blizzard ("One for the Road"). Bizarre dripperies, straight out of Tales from the Crypt comics. . . a leprous distillation.
Pub Date: Jan. 20, 1977
ISBN: 0385129912
Page Count: 367
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1977
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stephen King’s “Jerusalem’s Lot” to Be Epix Show
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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