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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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