An engrossing mystery with heartfelt characters.
A woman’s hunt for the truth about her history may unravel a mystery bigger than she ever imagined in Bentley’s novel.
Rachel Burton has lived a life feeling constantly let down by those around her. Her father abandoned her mother while she was pregnant with Rachel; her mother, a drug addict, disappeared, leaving Rachel to grow up in foster care; and her boyfriend betrayed her when he had an affair with her boss. She turns to psychologist Abigail Wixley for help with her anxiety and paranoia; Wixley then discovers something unexpected about Rachel: she has a mind made for numbers, patterns, and codes. Wixley agrees with Rachel’s suggestion that there may be a hereditary component. Rachel accepts the aid of ex-boyfriend Hayden Jones, an investigator reporter and undercover Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent, to help her find answers. First, Rachel finds her mother in a psychiatric facility, where the older woman rarely experiences lucidity. Unfortunately, she doesn’t recognize her daughter, who must undergo a DNA test to access information pertinent to her family history. Rachel discovers that her DNA connects her to a man killed in 1948 who was never identified and whose strange death has been the center of an insurmountable mystery. Bentley has taken a cold case premise inspired by real events and crafted it into a fantastic mystery with intrigue, an enticing cast, and a fast pace all making for an exhilarating story. Rachel is a relatable and grounded character who drives the action forward. (When Rachel meets her mother for the first time in years only to not be recognized, she is emotional but restrained: “It was only as Rachel brushed away an unexpected tear from her cheek that any acknowledgement of their presence was made.”) Her troubled history pulls at the heartstrings and provides an emotional core for the mystery, lending it a sincere quality that adds nuance to the narrative.
An engrossing mystery with heartfelt characters.Pub Date: July 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781038318992
Page Count: 348
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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
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