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
Fast-moving fun and a highly creative plot.
Bloody murder spoils folks’ fun while megafauna return from extinction.
What a glorious way to spend a honeymoon: Mark and Olivia Gunnerson go backpacking through the vast Erebus Resort in the mountains of Colorado, where scientists have “de-extincted” species like the woolly mammoth and other Pleistocene megafauna. Just watch the peaceful beasts at their watering holes. Behold the giant armadillos, and the indricothere that make mammoths look like dwarfs. The scientists have removed genes for aggression in these re-creations, so humans will be safe unless they’re accidentally stepped on. And yet, someone doesn’t want the newlyweds camping there, made evident by their disappearance without a trace, save only a copious amount of blood outside their tent. Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent in Charge Frankie Cash takes the case. What happened to Mark and Olivia, and why? The park has no predators, so humans must be responsible. But where are the bodies? A doctor suggests that due to the amount of blood found, the victims may have—gasp!—been decapitated. The matter gathers national attention, and things only get worse as more people die. The late groom’s aggrieved billionaire father demands immediate answers, and of course he interferes with the investigation: “You’ll see me now, you son of a bitch, and tell me what the fuck you’re doing to find my son!” And speaking of F-bombs, surely it is possible to write a thriller with fewer—maybe use one or two to establish a character and then move on to more creative language? Anyway, the investigators are doing a lot. The action seldom lets up, and readers will feel the mounting tension and excitement. The setting itself is a scientific wonder, and it must tie into the murders somehow. Meanwhile, Hollywood is filming an action movie in the park, and the pièce de résistance will be the spectacular explosion of a train. But wouldn’t you know, Preston has other plans. Imagine Jurassic Park with the timeline brought forward to the Pleistocene, and you have the Erebus Resort. Science, imagination, storytelling, and action are all here.
Fast-moving fun and a highly creative plot.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780765317704
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.
Dexter meets Killing Eve in Wallace’s dark comic thriller debut.
While accepting condolences following her father’s funeral, 30-something narrator Claire receives an email saying that one of her paintings is a finalist for a prize. But her joy is short-circuited the next morning when she learns in a second apologetic note that the initial email had been sent to the wrong Claire. The sender, Lucas Kane, is “terribly, terribly sorry” for his mistake. Claire, torn between her anger and suicidal thoughts, has doubts about his sincerity and stalks him to a London pub, where his fate is sealed: “I stare at Lucas Kane in real life, and within moments I know. He doesn’t look sorry.” She dispatches and buries Lucas in her back garden, but this crime does not go unnoticed. Proud of her meticulous standards as a serial killer, Claire wonders if her grief for her father is making her reckless as she seeks to identify the blackmailer among the members of her weekly bereavement support group. The female serial killer as antihero is a growing subgenre (see Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer, 2018), and Wallace’s sociopathic protagonist is a mordantly amusing addition; the tool she uses to interact with ordinary people while hiding her homicidal nature is especially sardonic: “Whenever I’m unsure of how I’m expected to respond, I use a cliché. Even if I’m not sure what it means, even if I use it incorrectly, no one ever seems to mind.” The well-written storyline tackles some tough subjects—dementia, elder abuse, and parental cruelty—but the convoluted plot starts to drag at the halfway point. Given the lack of empathy in Claire’s narration, most of the characters come across as not very likable, and the reader tires of her sneering contempt.
Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780143136170
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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