Vallgren, whose previous English-language release, The Merman (2015), is an exercise in magic realism, makes a strong entry...
The never-solved abduction of a 7-year-old boy 40 years ago is at the heart of this tale of murder and betrayal by well-regarded Swedish novelist Vallgren.
The unlikely protagonist is scuffling 44-year-old Danny Katz, whose genius with language and computers once made him a valuable young military asset, despite his fondness for heroin. When Joel Klingberg, an old classmate of his at the national interpreter academy, disappears, Joel's glamorous wife, Angela, asks Katz to find him. She says her husband—the younger brother of the long-missing boy—was looking into new information about the kidnapping. When Angela is brutally murdered and Katz is framed for the crime, he must go underground to avoid arrest and clear himself. That involves uncovering the deep, dark secrets of the wealthy Klingberg family—among them why Joel's parents chose to do themselves in in a suicide pact. The prosecutor on the case, as it turns out, is Eva, his first girlfriend, who, during an early drug-fueled misadventure, was found next to him beaten unconscious and, like Angela, bitten on the neck. With his chilly, foreboding style, Vallgren recalls other Scandinavian mystery writers. But as exemplified by the importance of Katz's Jewish background and other details, the book departs the mainstream so strongly defined by The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. A thriller with an offbeat, personal edge, this crime debut bodes well for future efforts in this genre by the author.
Vallgren, whose previous English-language release, The Merman (2015), is an exercise in magic realism, makes a strong entry into crime fiction.Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78429-129-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Mobius
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
The perfect gift for well-read mystery mavens who complain that they don’t write them like they used to.
A ghoulish killer brings a Boston bookseller’s list of perfect fictional murders to life—that is, to repeated, emphatic death.
The Red House Mystery, Malice Aforethought, The A.B.C. Murders, Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Drowner, Deathtrap, The Secret History: They may not be the best mysteries, reflects Malcolm Kershaw, but they feature the most undetectable murders, as he wrote on a little-read blog post when he was first hired at Old Devils Bookstore. Now that he owns the store with mostly silent partner Brian Murray, a semifamous mystery writer, that post has come back to haunt him. FBI agent Gwen Mulvey has observed at least three unsolved murders, maybe more, that seem to take their cues from the stories on Mal’s list. What does he think about possible links among them? she wonders. The most interesting thing he thinks is something he’s not going to share with her: He’s hiding a secret that would tie him even more closely to that list than she imagines. And while Mal is fretting about what he can do to help stop the violence without tipping his own hand, the killer, clearly untrammeled by any such scruples, continues down the list of fictional blueprints for perfect murders. Swanson (Before She Knew Him, 2019, etc.) jumps the shark early from genre thrills to metafictional puzzles, but despite a triple helping of cleverness that might seem like a fatal overdose, the pleasures of following, and trying to anticipate, a narrator who’s constantly second- and third-guessing himself and everyone around him are authentic and intense. If the final revelations are anticlimactic, that’s only because you wish the mounting complications, like a magician’s showiest routine, could go on forever.
The perfect gift for well-read mystery mavens who complain that they don’t write them like they used to.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-283820-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Mystery, danger, and sexual tension abound in an action-packed thriller that breaks plenty of heads but no new ground.
Sparks fly as a woman with extraordinary abilities fights her attraction to a dangerous freelance consultant.
Dr. Kendra Michaels has worked with former FBI Agent Adam Lynch before (Double Blind, 2018), but she’s furious with him for getting her tossed out of Afghanistan after she sustained a minor wound while trying to root out corruption. Kendra, who was blind until an experimental operation restored her sight at 20, has highly developed senses of smell, hearing, and spatial awareness that she’s used to help the FBI and CIA in many difficult cases. Now, as she returns to the U.S., they have another one she can’t resist investigating. Elaine Wessler and Ronald Kim, both staff members at her old school, the Woodward Academy for the Physically Disabled in Oceanside, California, have been found murdered for no apparent reason, and FBI Special Agent Michael Griffin is anxious to use her skills and inside knowledge. Elaine had been fostering an unusual guide dog, Harley, who's had problems adjusting since the child he was working with was killed in a gas-main explosion. Now that Elaine is gone, his unearthly howls are upsetting the students. Kendra talks her best friend, Olivia, who’s blind, into sharing custody of Harley until they can find him the right home. Meanwhile, she turns up clues the FBI team missed and is rewarded for her efforts with a bomb planted in her car. It turns out to be fake, but it’s still a potent warning to walk away. Returning from Afghanistan to help Kendra, Lynch finds her still angry with him and intent on resisting his charms. Her friend Jessie Mercado, a private eye, turns up to help extricate her from a dangerous situation and sticks around to join the hunt for the killers. It will take all of them, including Harley, to solve the violent, complex case and get the school Kendra loves back on track.
Mystery, danger, and sexual tension abound in an action-packed thriller that breaks plenty of heads but no new ground.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5387-6292-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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