The latest descent into the belly of the beast from Ellis (The Informers, 1994, etc.), who shows a surprising stamina for this sort of thing. Now that he has his formula down pat, Ellis—like Andrew Greeley and Stephen King—is both fun and easy to read. His new glare thriller follows a standard cherchezla femme course, in which the venal antihero forsakes greed in favor of lust only to discover than he's been a sucker from the get-go and that dames who shoot real bullets are far too smart to be for real. The patsy here is one Victor Ward, impresario of what promises to be the hottest nightclub in Manhattan if he can ever get money to open it up. Victor has every reason to hope for success, since he went to Camden College and is in tight with the smart set whose presence usually makes or breaks these places. One of his classmates is the actress Jamie Fields, Victor's old girlfriend, who has just disappeared in England during a movie shoot. Whether this is just one of Jamie's tantrums or a sign of foul play remains to be seen, and Victor is offered $300,000 to go over and quietly hunt her down. After a drunken crossing on the QE2, he hooks up with Jamie easily enough and even picks up the romance where they left it off—along with Bobby Hughes, Jamie's bisexual boyfriend. But Bobby seems to have some unsavory contacts, and the mountains of cash, crates of weaponry, and rooms of Palestinian "associates" that cram Bobby's London townhouse all lead Victor to fear that something sinister is afoot. Long before we discover the true identity of Victor's father (who, it may be said, is very influential in Washington, D.C.), we can smell a setup. The only question that remains by then is: Can help arrive in time? Brain candy for the Vanity Fair set.
Pub Date: Jan. 12, 1999
ISBN: 0-375-40412-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1998
Sly, unsettling, and impossible to put down.
Land asks if we are doomed to repeat the sins of our fathers—or, in this case, mothers—in her assured, creepy debut.
Fifteen-year-old Annie has a new home in London—and a new name, Milly—now that she's turned her mother in to the police. Psychologist Mike Newmont, his troubled wife, Saskia, and their daughter, Phoebe, have taken Milly in until her mother’s trial begins in 12 weeks. Only Mike and a few others know who Milly really is: the daughter of a nurse who murdered nine young children. Mike will be overseeing Milly’s therapy until the trial and is eager for her to fit into his family. However, Milly, who narrates the book, senses that something isn’t right between Saskia and Phoebe, and Phoebe, along with her friends, immediately starts a campaign of terror against the newcomer, whom she sees as an intruder in her family. Milly does find a friend in a younger girl, Morgan, who obviously has family problems of her own, but as the trial looms, Milly struggles to be the good person she longs to be even as the voice of her mother pushes her to give in to her darker urges. Can Milly find her own way, or is she a slave to her upbringing? Land, a mental health nurse, puts her knowledge to good use in her portrayal of Milly, who was raised by a sexually abusive monster who recruited her to play a role in her unspeakable crimes. A sense of creeping dread drives the narrative, and that most fascinating of crime-novel subjects, the female serial killer, casts a formidable shadow. Milly wages a war within herself that she may or may not win. Readers will be more than happy to go along for the ride and may be surprised how they feel about the conclusion, proving the unmistakable spell that Land has cast.
Sly, unsettling, and impossible to put down.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-08764-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
A long buildup culminates in a climax that’s not as satisfying as the rest of the story.
History seems to repeat itself across generations when a murder and the disappearance of a painting lead a Connecticut woman to investigate her sister’s private life.
Marred by tragedy at an early age, sisters Kate Woodward and Beth Lathrop coped with their mother’s murder and their kidnapping during an art heist in the family gallery in two very different ways. Beth married Pete Lathrop, started a family, and continued the family tradition of mentoring starving artists as part of the now-named Lathrop Gallery in the town of Black Hall. Kate was unmoored by what happened, becoming a pilot traveling through life with no connection to anyone except for Beth and childhood friends Lulu and Scotty. When Beth is six months pregnant, she’s killed in her own home, and Moonlight, the Benjamin Morrison painting stolen in the first heist, once again goes missing. Detective Conor Reid couldn’t be more shocked by the turn of events. He’s kept an eye on Beth and Kate for years since being part of the team that investigated the first crime, oversight that Rice presents as sweet rather than stalkerish. Conor is certain that Pete killed Beth. After all, the marriage was on the rocks, and Pete already had a new child with Nicola, his paramour. But Conor’s theory of the crime is harder to prove than he anticipates. Kate’s just as desperate to learn the truth about Beth, and she finds that the more she investigates Beth’s last day, the more she wonders whether she ever knew her sister at all.
A long buildup culminates in a climax that’s not as satisfying as the rest of the story.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1820-3
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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