A clever, fast-paced, and gruesome mystery.
A quick-witted FBI agent squares off against a depraved serial killer in this debut thriller.
Special agent Benjamin Kroh’s job is to track down murderers, and he’s extremely good at it. As a member of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, Kroh gets an assignment that takes him back to his hometown in Indiana, where the so-called Fingertip Killer has struck again. At first, the homicide looks like the work of a disgruntled ex-autoworker, but the victim’s missing fingertips link the murder to similar cases in other states. Evidence suggests a comedian on the national touring circuit could be behind the crimes, but Kroh’s instincts tell him to look twice at a too-convenient solution. The truth, it turns out, is more disturbing than he could have ever imagined. As Kroh hunts for the supposed perp, the real killer plots his next move, soon setting his sights on the agent, who seems dangerously close to unmasking him. Oneal’s novel is a solid thriller that should appeal to fans of TV series like Criminal Minds. The comedy-club circuit setting is a creative twist, though as a villain, Fingertip is no Hannibal Lecter. His over-the-top pronouncements and absurd arrogance come off as more goofy than scary. “Why can’t I just kill and be recognized for my art?” he whines at one point. Detailed descriptions of the murders may be a bit much for the squeamish, while the off-color joking the FBI agents engage in is strictly high school locker-room material. As the hero, Kroh has swagger and sex appeal, and his affair with Crystal Markum, a forensic investigator on the case, provides an excuse for several steamy bedroom scenes. But this agent’s abrasive style and tendency to consider all witnesses (and some of his co-workers) hostile make him less sympathetic. Furthermore, the book’s shallow treatment of its female characters remains off-putting; they’re almost universally “pretty” or “beautiful” and not much else. Still, the graphic story’s a true page-turner, and the final confrontation between Kroh and Fingertip provides a satisfying denouement.
A clever, fast-paced, and gruesome mystery.Pub Date: March 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4575-5452-0
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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