Published posthumously, this 11th installment in the elegant Fielding series (The Price of Murder, 2003, etc.) was completed...
The inexplicable suicide of a powerful British lord leads Sir John Fielding and Jeremy Proctor to the weird worlds of medical quackery and necromancy.
In 18th-century London, the Lord Chief Justice appeals to jurist and sometime sleuth Sir John Fielding when several witness see the distinguished Lord Lammermoor jump to his death from Westminster Bridge—even though he had no apparent reason to kill himself. Giving Sir John an edge is the secret disclosure of Annie Oakum, a former cook in the Fielding household gone on to thespian fame at the Drury Lane Theatre with David Garrick’s famous troupe. She confesses to wide-eyed Jeremy, the blind Sir John’s eyes, legs, and amanuensis, that she spent the night with Lammermoor, her lover, before his fatal leap. A dispute between the coroner, grim Mr. Trezavant, and the earnest doctor who first examined the body leads to an unsatisfying judgment of suicide, and further probing by Jeremy for Sir John. Sir John is suspicious of secretive Lady Lammermoor, who’s tight with Mr. Goldsworthy, a “progressive” physician who claims he can heal with magnets and magnetized water. Unfortunately, the investigation’s timing couldn’t be worse for Jeremy, whose marriage to his long-time love Clarissa, Lady Fielding’s ward, is imminent.
Published posthumously, this 11th installment in the elegant Fielding series (The Price of Murder, 2003, etc.) was completed by the author’s widow and mystery writer Jack Shannon. Most readers will wish for more.Pub Date: March 3, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-15242-3
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2005
Mystery and detection compete with a gorgeous swarm of supercharged personalities on their own wild rides.
Unlicensed, untrammeled, uncensored South Central shamus Isaiah Quintabe’s fourth case could be his toughest—and not because it’s so hard to figure out whodunit.
Nobody says no to arms dealer Angus Byrne, and he certainly doesn’t intend for IQ to be the first. So when East Long Beach’s premiere unofficial investigator, who’s been kidnapped and marched into the dealer’s presence after declining an earlier invitation from his goons, indicates in no uncertain terms that no, he’s not interested in clearing Angus’ daughter, custom tailor Christiana Byrne, from suspicion of shooting Tyler Barnes, Angus’ very best employee, Angus promptly turns up the heat, threatening to break the hand of IQ’s girlfriend, violinist Stella McDaniels, if Christiana is so much as arrested for murder. Not enough pressure for you? Well, IQ’s attachment to Stella is about to be seriously tested by the return of his lost love Grace Monarova, who took off for New Mexico with IQ’s dog in the wake of his last adventure (Wrecked, 2018). And Christiana turns out to be not one but five suspects, including homebody Pearl, seductive Marlene, adolescent Jasper, and guardian Bertrand, all fighting for attention and control inside Christiana’s tormented psyche. Figuring out which of the five personalities witnessed which events on the night of the murder and which of them can remember and describe anything about what really happened would be a tall order for any sleuth. But although he isn’t just any sleuth, IQ has to juggle a record number of subplots and distractions, from his buddy Thomas Kahill’s sudden yearning for true love to the maneuvering of Angus’ lieutenants for control of his arms empire to a series of increasingly intemperate skirmishes over a particular prize, a modern rendition of a Gatling gun.
Mystery and detection compete with a gorgeous swarm of supercharged personalities on their own wild rides.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-50953-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
A worthwhile thriller and a valuable exposé.
A CIA coverup slowly unravels.
In 1953, Dr. Charles Wilson either jumped or fell from a window of the Hotel Harrington. In 1975, at a Senate hearing, it was publicly revealed that he had been subjected to a CIA experiment involving LSD, but the fact that he had been a CIA employee and the details of his work for the agency went undiscovered. Internal records of the death were missing, and the director, himself unaware of the actual circumstances of Wilson's death, asks Jack Gabriel to investigate and report the real story if he can. Gabriel knew Wilson and that he worked in the germ warfare laboratories, and from that starting point he begins to explore the questions surrounding Wilson's death. As he works, potential witnesses die "accidentally," avenues of inquiry dry up, and a substantial coverup becomes apparent. Then an anonymous source offers a few tips, and Gabriel begins to understand the true extent of the CIA's crime: They murdered one of their own. There remain questions, though, and in the process of trying to assess who and why, Gabriel's own life becomes perilous. Overall, the novel's pace is a little slow and the plot one-dimensional, but the characters of Gabriel and his family and of Wilson's surviving family are vivid and sympathetic. Vidich (The Good Assassin, 2017, etc.) acknowledges that his novel is based on the story of Frank Olson, who "fell or jumped" from a New York City hotel room in November 1953, and fidelity to historical fact may account for the pace and plotting. But this fidelity also reveals a shameful instance of postwar conduct and the arrogance of the powerful.
A worthwhile thriller and a valuable exposé.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64313-335-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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