An engaging thriller for crime and mystery fans looking for an unconventional sleuth.
In this novel, a Texas nun becomes involved in the plights of two victims of Mexico’s kidnapping epidemic.
East Austin’s Sister Bridget Ann Rincón-Keller is shocked to discover a newborn infant on the grounds of her parish and then the blood-soaked Isabel Ortiz, the baby’s 15-year-old mother, who disappeared from her home in Mexico the year before. Isabel’s harrowing journey included being abducted by the monstrous serial kidnapper and drug trafficker El Gigante, being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and escaping from the agency’s custody. The cards continue to be stacked against her when she is separated from her baby by a most determined foster parent. When Isabel steals her baby in a frantic, albeit ill-advised, bid to flee toward the border, Sister Bridget does what she can to protect her. But Isabel is safer than her friend JuanaSan Miguel, another El Gigante kidnap victim, who is still in his custody. Sister Bridget is determined to rescue Juana and heads down to Mexico, where she is joined by Austin police Det. Estevez of the Human Trafficking Unit. The two develop a bond that will test Sister Bridget’s vows. “Being with you or not being with you are two good choices,” she tells him. “I believe that either way is fine with God…as long as my faith and trust in God is not shaken.” This is Kolda’s second multicultural thriller to feature Sister Bridget, who is known as “a bit of a crime solver.” This outing is more character study than mystery (El Gigante is outed as the perpetrator early on), and it fleshes out Sister Bridget as a woman of unshakeable compassion and faith as well as resourcefulness and sharp-eyed cunning (she makes a keen observation about the foster mother’s home that the police miss). Sister Bridget disappears for a lengthy section when an older couple take Isabel under their wing, but they are engaging characters in their own rights, and the teen’s flight generates page-turning tension. There are only mild profanities, but some may find the descriptions of El Gigante’s crimes and scenes of violence disturbing.
An engaging thriller for crime and mystery fans looking for an unconventional sleuth.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5092-4217-7
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.
Travel writer Lo Blacklock is back. Ten years after the events of The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), she's attending the opening of a lavish Swiss hotel when, once again, a mystery intervenes.
A decade after she almost died on a luxury cruise and ended up exposing a murder plot, travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock is trying to get back into the business post-Covid-19 and post–maternity leave. When she's invited to an exclusive hotel launch by the Leidmann Group on the shores of Switzerland’s gorgeous Lake Geneva, her supportive husband, Judah, insists that she should go, and her old boss, Rowan, says that if Lo can score an interview with the reclusive Marcus Leidmann, she’ll publish it in the Financial Times. Leaving Judah and the kids at home in New York, Lo is surprised by a last-minute upgrade to first class, which kicks off her trip in style. The hotel is appropriately awe-inspiring in both scenic location and effortless luxury, and Lo starts to put the memories of last trip’s trauma behind her, thinking that maybe she can just enjoy the experience this time. But then, at dinner, she's surprised to see at least three guests who were also on that original cruise, and when she finds a mysterious note in her room saying "Please come to suite 11 as soon as possible," she gets another shock. To quote William Faulkner, she realizes that “the past is never dead,” and soon Lo is careening across Europe on her way to England, only to find herself embroiled in another murder. The back half of the novel offers her the opportunity to continue her amateur sleuthing, and while she avoids much of the physical danger that plagued her on the cruise a decade ago, she is in very real legal trouble. This is the prolific Ware’s first sequel, and it's fun to spend time with Lo again, as she's both savvy and kindhearted. Unfortunately, the mystery is not as atmospheric and gripping as usual for Ware, though even a lesser Ruth Ware thriller is still worth reading.
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781668025628
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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