A heady, visceral police thriller.
In Nelson’s debut crime thriller, a city cop faces an evil conspiracy.
Anthony Maddoc is a scarred soul, with a violent, traumatic past as a soldier in Vietnam. He channels that dark energy into his job as a policeman in New York City, where he’s faced with the vicissitudes of human nature, in the office as well as on the street. A deep feud between Maddoc and a hellbent, barbarous lieutenant precedes a series of tragic events. Maddoc’s wife, Marie, is murdered during a mysterious home invasion, in which their house is nearly burned to the ground; later, their daughter, Sylvi, is kidnapped by people whose practices are as bizarre and intricate as their ties to the police force, powerful corporations, politics, and the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, members of the massive, secretive Matterlink Foundation seek information about a strange man, Otha Gubbin, who is the head of a black-market adoption agency and a notorious rapist, bigamist, and cult leader. He preys on young, naïve homeless women and sells their infants for ridiculous profit. Sylvi soon finds herself embroiled in this horrific underworld of murder, coercion, and sexual assault, wondering how to stay alive. Maddoc and his few trusted friends pursue her, hoping to unravel the mystery, as those involved with Matterlink try to cover their tracks. This remarkable thriller offers psychological intricacy and intellectual substance. Nelson makes its criminal activities seem real and convincing, never sacrificing palpable details for generalizations. Ultimately, it’s a story about the consequences of revenge and about what can happen when the hidden, insidious machinery of power reaches into everyday life. It also balances its commitment to its plot with rousing, sudden flashes of action: “Erla came at him with the stick. Vincent, his combat instincts taking over, deflected the stick and smashed her nose flat and to the left of her face with the heel of his hand. She passed out.”
A heady, visceral police thriller.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4575-3239-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A good beach read, set in a beach town.
A fast-paced novel about the enduring friendship of three young women who spent their summers in Avalon on the Jersey shore before dispersing across the country.
The book opens with Kate, now a lawyer in the girls’ original hometown of Philadelphia. Kate’s fiance, a man she met in law school, breaks up with her the same day she learns she is pregnant with their baby. Then we meet Vanessa, now living in New York City. Vanessa has given up her career as an art dealer in the city to raise her daughter Lucy and is struggling with her husband’s confession that he recently came close to cheating on her. Then we meet Dani, an aspiring novelist who has just lost her job in a bookstore in San Francisco. Dani is still dealing with drug and alcohol addictions and is still looking for Mr. Right. When the three decide to get together and spend the 4th of July holiday back in Avalon, they are each haunted by memories of Kate’s twin brother, Colin, who tragically drowned there eight years earlier when they were all on the cusp of adulthood. Woven into the mystery of Colin’s demise are other issues of childhood that influenced each of the young women. As they look back on the painful past and flirt with future opportunities, the women finally share the secrets they had kept all those years, forgive one another and prepare themselves to move on in positive ways.
A good beach read, set in a beach town.Pub Date: May 21, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-220381-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Natural storyteller Hunter knows the value of the occasional poignant scene to give his firefights breathing room. Not for a...
In the category of slam-bang, testosterone-laden, body-bag filling, hellzapoppin' potboilers, this is as good as it gets.
For those who may have wondered about the gene pool that helped produce master sniper Bob Lee Swagger, the author's demigod of a series hero (Time to Hunt, 1998, etc.), here's the tell-all prequel. Earl Swagger, valiant marine, Congressional Medal of Honor winner, is Bob Lee's demigod of a daddy. We also meet Bob Lee's brave and beautiful mama. It's the summer of 1946, and Hot Springs, Arkansas, is under the thumb of gangster Owney Maddox, who has a dream: he wants to refashion Hot Springs into an oasis of sin, a place where Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel, et al., will feel safe, comfortable, and cosseted. He’s halfway there. On the surface Special Prosecutor Fred C. Becker doesn't seem much of a deterrent, but Becker has a dream too: he wants to be Arkansas's youngest governor ever. Moreover, he has a plan: to bring Owney down by recruiting and training an elite task force that can strike hard, fast, and ruthlessly. Earl Swagger—who better?—is charged with the training. At first, things go right. The recruits are eager and motivated. Aided by the element of surprise, they deliver a series of blows that shake the Maddox realm to its Sodom-like foundations. But then Maddox, with the whole of New York gangsterdom to draw from, recruits his own elite force. The stage is set for blood-drenched confrontations, during which lots of bad men are killed, some good men are betrayed, and Earl performs exactly the way Bob Lee's progenitor should.
Natural storyteller Hunter knows the value of the occasional poignant scene to give his firefights breathing room. Not for a minute to be taken seriously, but, all in all, a blast.Pub Date: July 3, 2000
ISBN: 0-684-86360-X
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
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