A tense, high-stakes read with a layered cast.
Samantha Church, recovering alcoholic, ace reporter for Colorado’s Grandview Perspective, and amateur sleuth, searches for her late friend’s lost little sister in the sixth installment of the series.
Sam’s young colleague Hunter was killed in an investigation gone bad. His only remaining family member was his little sister, Jenny, who disappeared years ago. Although Hunter is dead, Sam is obsessed with finding Jenny, and the obvious place to start is El Paso, where Hunter and Jenny were born. The reporter’s new friend, Sandy Petersen, an elementary school teacher, overhears an older fellow say “Hey, look at this, Jenny” to his young companion in a grocery store. Amazingly, that turns out to be the very Jenny in question, and the chase is on. The older man is Houston Meyers, a decorated Marine veteran. Turns out, he found Jenny while looking for paid sex but was immediately so struck by her beauty and vulnerability that he became her fierce protector. We are talking here about sex trafficking—Jenny was raised in Mexico but lured back to El Paso—and that is where attorney Amanda Moore and her henchman, Larry Henderson, come in. They are, in fact, sex traffickers. As we follow the hunt, there are the obligatory violent and nail-biting scenes. Ferrendelli is a competent if not an original writer, and Sam is a likable character/narrator. Several events are mentioned that one assumes took place in earlier books in the series. We learn a lot about sex trafficking and police procedures (Ferrendelli is an experienced journalist). Does it strain credulity the way Jenny is discovered? Let the reader decide. Moore is a despicable villain and is the one character without much nuance. Houston Meyers deserves mention as a very interesting and admirable character, as is Wilson Cole Jr., the wise owner of the Grandview Perspective. Typos don’t overly distract.
A tense, high-stakes read with a layered cast.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-7981-1552-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.
A sequel to The Grey Wolf (2024) that begins with the earlier novel’s last line: “We have a problem.” And what a problem it is.
Now that Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his allies in and out of the Sûreté du Québec have saved Canada’s water supply from poisoning on a grand scale, you might think they were entitled to some rest and relaxation in Three Pines. No such luck. Don Joseph Moretti, the Sixth Family head who ordered the hit-and-run on biologist Charles Langlois that nearly killed Gamache as well, is plotting still more criminal enterprises, and Gamache can’t be sure that Chief Inspector Evelyn Tardiff, who’s been cozying up to Moretti in order to get the goods on him, hasn’t gone over to the dark side herself. In fact, Gamache’s uncertainty about Evelyn sets the pattern for much of what follows, for another review of one of Langlois’ notebooks reveals a plot so monstrous that it’s impossible to be sure who’s not in on it. Is it really true, as paranoid online rumors have it, that “Canada is about to attack the U.S.”? Or is it really the other way around, as the discovery of War Plan Red would have it? As the threats loom larger and larger, they raise questions as to whether the Black Wolf, the evil power behind them, is Moretti, disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister Marcus Lauzon, whom Gamache has arranged to have released from prison, or someone even more highly placed. A brief introductory note dating Penny’s delivery of the uncannily prophetic manuscript to September 2024 will do little to assuage the anxieties of concerned readers.
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328175
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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