A gleefully dubious cast headlines this grim, involving crime story.
An ex-con returns to his old criminal ways to save his daughter in Wilsher’s thriller.
Houston medical resident Bebe Moore is in over her head. She’s been making and selling methylamine to a biker gang, which has attracted the interest of a rival cartel. When thugs abduct her girlfriend, Amy, Bebe calls in Amy’s father, Charlie McCoy, who did a six-year stint behind bars for robbery. He’s now in a witness protection program in Colorado after testifying against the mob; he sneaks into Texas to attempt to rescue the daughter he’s hardly seen through the years of his incarceration and time in WITSEC. Finding Amy isn’t easy, but crooked lawyer Daniel Spector is willing to help, so long as skilled lock-picker Charlie takes part in a bank heist—it’s the cartel’s bank, and sure to be stacked with millions. While Spector puts together a ragtag crew that’s not especially trustworthy, Charlie risks his life and his freedom to swipe a bundle from dangerous, well-armed gangsters. Wilsher delivers an enjoyable, swiftly paced tale; the characters are delightfully complex, from Bebe, whose feelings for Amy are hard to nail down (Bebe “doesn’t understand love, and she’ll freely admit that”), to some oafish brothers on the heist team who may not be as dense as they seem. They’re all unpredictable, likely to engineer a double-cross or two and driven by a variety of motives (money, revenge, or ensuring Amy’s safety). During the steady buildup to the heist, an imminent hurricane sets an ominous mood, reinforcing the glaring lack of trust among the crew, and portends the arrival of wrathful cartel members, vicious bikers, and a crooked cop. The latter half of the narrative rarely slows down as myriad people chase each other across Texas’ arid landscape. This exceedingly dark novel racks up a significant body count before it reaches its unforgettable ending.
A gleefully dubious cast headlines this grim, involving crime story.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9798218955427
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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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