A straightforward tale about a retired police detetive getting even with an old enemy.
Oldham tells the story of an ex-cop in Arizona who takes the law into his own hands after the system fails him in this debut thriller.
After a brutal rape and carjacking leaves two teenagers paralyzed for life, Tucson police detective Dave Roberts is sure that the men responsible will be in jail for 20 years. Imagine his surprise when, after only 14 years, prison overcrowding leads to the early release of one of the men. The convict, Jerry Harwell, is anything but reformed: “He knew he could never walk the straight line as his attorneys and relatives expected and wanted him to do. He might try, but he was a criminal, would always be one, and no amount of therapy would change that.” Retired and now operating his own restaurant in Scottsdale, Roberts is furious that the justice system has failed to adequately punish Harwell, who Roberts thought got off with a light sentence in the first place. The incident convinces Roberts to go full vigilante. He and one of his friends from the restaurant business, an ex-Marine, begin to operate outside the law to bring criminals to justice. Though this new occupation places great strains on the quiet life Roberts has built for himself and his wife, Rebecca, it may be the only way to ensure Harwell can never repeat the crime he committed 14 years ago. Oldham writes in an easy-to-read prose, and the story moves along at a fast clip, though in tone and complexity it sometimes reads like a middle-grade novel about a group of gun-toting retirees in Arizona. While the premise sets up an intriguing question as to the limitations of punishment and forgiveness, the author avoids exploring the issue by portraying Roberts as a fundamentally decent person (despite his extralegal activities) and Harwell as a basically villainous one. The result is a rather Manichean revenge fantasy that never seriously questions the ethics of Roberts’ actions. Such a story may entertain readers with a similarly black-and-white worldview, but those desiring more nuance should look elsewhere.
A straightforward tale about a retired police detetive getting even with an old enemy.Pub Date: March 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5233-9351-0
Page Count: 254
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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