Coulter’s tone softens the story’s edge and, despite two feisty heroines facing down the killer, leaves the climax as mushy...
Following Hemlock (2001), the seventh in Coulter’s FBI thrillers, which she seemingly bangs out as effortlessly as she did her 37 historical romances that rang bells on the Times’s bestseller list. Here, we’re introduced to young Special Agent Dane Carver, though many old-timers show up as well, including Dillon Savich, chief of the Criminal Apprehension Unit at FBI headquarters, and his wife, Special Agent Lacy Sherlock Savich. Off in San Francisco, Dane’s twin brother, Father Michael Joseph Carver, a priest, is murdered at midnight by a sociopath serial killer who has come to big Saint Bartholomew’s large dark empty spaces for an unrepentant confession. When Father Michael Joseph explains to the nut that he clearly lacks any remorse for his varied murders, and thus his confession is not binding on priestly silence, the killer shoots him through the forehead in the confessional, then walks out amused and whistling. But he wasn’t alone. Nick (for Nicole) Jones, a homeless woman Father Michael Joseph wanted to help, was hiding in a pew following the shot and saw the perp. This becomes the first lead for San Francisco detectives on the case, now joined by Dane, who promises not to bring the FBI into it.
Coulter’s tone softens the story’s edge and, despite two feisty heroines facing down the killer, leaves the climax as mushy as a rain-soaked lawn. See Tess Gerritsen’s Boston PD homicide procedural The Apprentice [p. TK] for real bloodwork.Pub Date: July 22, 2002
ISBN: 0-399-14877-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
An exciting, thought-provoking mind-bender.
In Crouch’s sci-fi–driven thriller, a machine designed to help people relive their memories creates apocalyptic consequences.
In 2018, NYPD Detective Barry Sutton unsuccessfully tries to talk Ann Voss Peters off the edge of the Poe Building. She claims to have False Memory Syndrome, a bewildering condition that seems to be spreading. People like Ann have detailed false memories of other lives lived, including marriages and children, but in “shades of gray, like film noir stills.” For some, like Ann, an overwhelming sense of loss leads to suicide. Barry knows loss: Eleven years ago, his 15-year-old daughter, Meghan, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Details from Ann’s story lead him to dig deeper, and his investigation leads him to a mysterious place called Hotel Memory, where he makes a life-altering discovery. In 2007, a ridiculously wealthy philanthropist and inventor named Marcus Slade offers neuroscientist Helena Smith the chance of a lifetime and an unlimited budget to build a machine that allows people to relive their memories. He says he wants to “change the world.” Helena hopes that her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, will benefit from her passion project. The opportunity for unfettered research is too tempting to turn down. However, when Slade takes the research in a controversial direction, Helena may have to destroy her dream to save the world. Returning to a few of the themes he explored in Dark Matter (2016), Crouch delivers a bullet-fast narrative and raises the stakes to a fever pitch. A poignant love story is woven in with much food for thought on grief and the nature of memories and how they shape us, rounding out this twisty and terrifying thrill ride.
An exciting, thought-provoking mind-bender.Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-5978-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
There’s nothing romantic about Joe’s preoccupation with Beck, but Kepnes puts the reader so deep into his head that...
An impending sense of dread hangs over Kepnes’ cleverly claustrophobic debut, in which love takes on a whole new meaning.
Told from the perspective of Joe Goldberg, a seemingly normal Manhattan bookstore employee, the narrative is structured like a long monologue to the titular “you”: a young woman, Guinevere Beck, who becomes the object of Joe’s obsessive affection. They meet casually enough at the bookstore, and since she’s an aspiring writer just starting an MFA program, they bond over literature. Seems innocuous enough, even sweet, until we learn just how far Joe will go to make Beck—her preferred name—his own. Kepnes makes keen use of modern technology to chronicle Joe and Beck’s “courtship”: He not only stalks her on Twitter, but hacks into her email account and, after casually lifting her cellphone, monitors her text messages. In Joe’s mind, he’s keeping Beck safe from what he perceives as dangers in her life, particularly the clingy, wealthy Peach Salinger (yes, a relative of that Salinger); Beck’s hard-partying ex, Benji; and her therapist, the smooth-talking Dr. Nicky. When Joe and Beck finally, inevitably get together, it only serves to ratchet up Joe’s predatory, possessive instincts. Every text is analyzed as if it were the German Enigma Code, and every email is parsed and mined for secret meaning. There’s little doubt that the relationship is doomed, but Kepnes keeps the reader guessing on just how everything will implode.
There’s nothing romantic about Joe’s preoccupation with Beck, but Kepnes puts the reader so deep into his head that delusions approach reality.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 9781476785592
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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