Appealing characters energize this well-written detective tale.
In this sequel, private eye Jack Fox juggles new fatherhood with chasing organ harvesters.
Jack learned he was a dad only six months ago when Enid Iglowski showed up at his door. Both he and his 17-year-old daughter struggle settling into their new, shared life. This may explain Enid’s anger issues, like clocking a bully at her Arizona school. While dealing with his daughter’s troubles, Jack takes on a missing person case. His new client, Layla Orlov, hasn’t seen her Russian mail-order-bride sister in nearly a month. In a concurrent plot, local police detective Bud Orlean gets a phone call on one of his “restricted work days,” as his heart disease has relegated him to part-time. He works a gang-style shooting, a crime scene trumped by what fills the victim’s car’s trunk—assorted organs, most likely for the black market. Bud soon realizes this organ-harvesting investigation has ties to Jack’s case. It’s hardly surprising that those behind these macabre crimes are dangerous, and they soon set their eyes on Enid. As if this weren’t enough for Jack to handle, his former lover and alleged serial killer Eve Hargrove hits him with a bit of blackmail. Evidently, she’s pregnant with their child while still behind bars and awaiting trial. If he doesn’t marry her, Eve vows to kill the unborn baby. Jack has a mind-boggling decision to make, all while trying to close his case and keep his teen daughter safe.
This follow-up to Gunning for Angels(2014) stars an indelible cast whose assumptions advance the plot. For example, Enid spots insurance forms on Jack’s desk and becomes convinced her dad has plans to kill her. It’s a humorously absurd claim that adults, especially her school counselor, take seriously. But it’s also indicative of the girl’s understandable fear of abandonment; she’s certain Jack will leave her. The father-daughter relationship is authentic, portraying challenging and endearing moments; Jack’s simple compliments (“You’re better than that”) have more impact on Enid than he knows or she’s willing to admit. Each character likewise has their share of strengths and weaknesses. Enid runs away from her problems but not when others need help, and hotheaded, promiscuous Jack proves a tenacious investigator. This melodrama-infused story isn’t a typical mystery; pieces of what Jack, Bud, and even Enid discover mostly fall into place without too much effort. Nevertheless, the trio of atypical detectives unquestionably faces cruel, frightening villains. Lewis builds nerve-wracking set pieces, and uses razor-sharp prose: “Behind the pretty brown eyes was a shade of cold calculation that Jack recognized all too well from the plethora of not-so-young-anymore moms looking for a bankroll.” In the same vein, the author doesn’t shy away from violent, sometimes grotesque imagery.
Appealing characters energize this well-written detective tale.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Cathleen A. McCarthy
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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