A topical crime thriller makes up for deficiencies in suspense with sensitive character portraits.
An international thriller explores the impact of counterfeit pharmaceutical smuggling.
In this, her fourth novel, former political scientist Holden draws on her expertise to weave a tale of global intrigue. After a prologue in Nigeria shows the death of Toyosi, a young diabetic girl, the action shifts to New Jersey where Frank Hughes, an art professor, grieves over the AIDS-related death of his lover Earl. Soon Frank too is dead in an apparent suicide. What links these two stories is the possibility that both Toyosi and Earl died from taking counterfeit medication, perhaps supplied by the same global syndicate. Could Frank have been killed because he knew too much? Unraveling this mystery falls to several innocent bystanders, notably the young painter Cece Gardner, Frank’s friend and colleague, and Babatunde Akanbi, Toyosi’s computer-whiz older brother. Although Cece and Babatunde never meet, their diligent work takes them to the heart of the mystery, ultimately placing each in grave danger. While the final quarter of the novel reveals Holden’s skill with action scenes, for the most part she favors suspense over surprise, revealing early on the main villains’ identities and the basic details of their crimes. This mode of exposition poses specific challenges and the narrative sometimes slackens as characters struggle to discover what is, for the reader, old news. Added strain on the plot, especially in the New Jersey scenes, comes from the excessive proliferation of minor characters, mostly as foils for the heroes. What makes this counterpointing unnecessary is the genuine sensitivity with which Holden draws her protagonists. Holden’s academic experience evidently includes minute observation of the culture of academic institutions, and nearly every detail in her portraits of Cece and Frank rings true. Her vivid portrayal of Frank is especially impressive given that it is almost entirely constructed from suggestive details retained in the memories of the character’s surviving friends. By the end of the novel, readers will feel as if they, too, have spent years of collegiality and friendship with this gruff, determined figure. Exploring Frank and Cece’s multifaceted personalities is the novel’s most genuine and compelling mystery.
A topical crime thriller makes up for deficiencies in suspense with sensitive character portraits.Pub Date: March 13, 2010
ISBN: 978-1450226912
Page Count: 256
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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