A fun rags-to-riches tale in an engaging mystery helmed by an appealing protagonist.
An extraordinary surprise inheritance places a resourceful young nurse’s life in danger in this mystery/thriller.
Twenty-seven-year-old Tori Winters is working as a hospice nurse in Springfield, Missouri, when she receives a phone call that Horace Milburn, one of her patients, has died. Although Horace was in hospice care at home, Tori is surprised that he succumbed so quickly because he had been feeling better in recent days. She arrives at the Russell house, where Horace had been living with his daughter, Amelia, and son-in-law, Charlie, and discovers that too few of his pain medication pills are in their container. Tori suspects foul play, and she becomes the prime witness in Charlie’s murder trial. After continued harassment by Charlie’s two brothers, Earl and Farley, culminating in a bullet smashing through her living room window, Tori decides it is time to get out of town. Then she receives a phone call from attorney Jonah Greer in Granbury, Texas, saying he has important business to discuss with her. She sets out for Texas but not before covering her tracks by telling everyone in Springfield that she is moving to Colorado. She meets with Jonah and learns that her paternal grandmother, Elly Leichter, who she had been told died decades earlier, has just recently passed away. Elly left her entire estate to Tori, including an old mansion in need of repair. Tori falls in love with the mysterious house and inherits a world of danger. Dickason’s series opener features an intriguing hero. And the house—with its unique history; intricately described, valuable antiques; and many secrets—offers plenty of opportunities for future plotlines. Tori intends to turn the “white elephant” into a bed-and-breakfast (“The house was a mish-mash of arched windows, plain and stained glass, and gingerbread trim”). Several attempts on Tori’s life provide adequate moments of moderate tension, and there is an ample supply of possible suspects. Although there are no big final surprises, the entertaining narrative moves along at a healthy clip, building a collection of captivating secondary characters who are likely to appear in the sequel, with one who may become a romantic interest.
A fun rags-to-riches tale in an engaging mystery helmed by an appealing protagonist.Pub Date: July 1, 2022
ISBN: 9781734082197
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Mystic Circle Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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