An engrossing cloak-and-dagger thriller that’s both chilling and convincing.
The past comes calling for a London spy, setting him on a course of revenge.
The horrible death of ceramics-factory worker Alexei Nikolaye after a disastrous—and top secret—leak from a Soviet bioweapons program in 1979 serves as prologue to the present-day murder of Russian émigré and retired spy Saul Kaszeta near his Adirondack cabin. In London, meanwhile, Lachlan Kite, a British intelligence agent, is dealing with his mother's descent into Alzheimer’s when he receives an unwelcome visit. His colleague Cara Jannaway has unsettling news about a new addition to a hit list called JUDAS that contains the names of former Russian intelligence personnel living in the West, several of whom have been murdered. When Kite sees Peter Galvin, a former alias of his own, listed as JUDAS 62, he realizes that he must act to save himself and his family, who know nothing of his intelligence work. As one character remarks, “the personal is operational.” So it is with Cumming, who creates fully fleshed characters whose storylines play out in a perilously realistic world. Before undertaking an intricate mission that culminates in Dubai and involves leveraging the assistance of businesswoman and call girl Natalia Kovalenko, flashbacks take Kite to 1993, when he first became involved in espionage as a carefree cricketer at Eton. Cumming’s timely second installment, following Box 88 (2022), stands alone but also adds breadth and depth to the story of Lachlan Kite. Expect more.
An engrossing cloak-and-dagger thriller that’s both chilling and convincing.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-61316-339-9
Page Count: 494
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
It's hard to read but hard to look away from.
When two women who share a birthday meet, a journalist becomes the subject of her own true-crime mystery.
On their 45th birthdays, Josie Fair and Alix Summer meet at a pub and discover they were born not only on the same day, but in the same hospital. Alix is a successful journalist, and Josie convinces Alix that her story is worth telling: Josie met her husband when she was 13 and he was 40. “I can see that maybe I was being used, that maybe I was even being groomed?” she confesses to Alix. “But that feeling of being powerful, right at the start, when I was still in control. I miss that sometimes. I really do. And what I’d like, more than anything, is to get it back.” From this premise Alix creates a Netflix series, Hi! I’m Your Birthday Twin! which investigates Josie’s life as she reconciles what happened to her as a teen and seeks a new path. With the story unfinished, the narrative unfolds in the present tense, with prose that jingles like song lyrics: “He turns to see if the girl is behind him, and sees her wishy-washy, wavy-wavy, in double vision through the glass windows of the hotel.” Alix is both intrigued and repulsed by Josie, but she initially gives her the benefit of the doubt. After all, Alix’s husband, Nathan, has a drinking problem, and Alix knows what it’s like to be reluctant to leave a bad situation. But Josie seems more interested in being part of Alix’s seemingly glamorous life than she is in fixing her own, and when three people end up dead and Alix’s life is turned upside down, the evidence points to Josie—and turns the TV series into a murder mystery. Transcripts from Alix’s interviews alternate with the narrative, offering increasingly varied perspectives on Josie’s story as told by her neighbors, friends, and family members. With so many versions of events, the ending shatters, leaving readers to decide whose is the truth.
It's hard to read but hard to look away from.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9781982179007
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be...
Box takes another break from his highly successful Joe Pickett series (Stone Cold, 2014, etc.) for a stand-alone about a police detective, a developmentally delayed boy, and a package everyone in North Dakota wants to grab.
Cassandra Dewell can’t leave Montana’s Lewis and Clark County fast enough for her new job as chief investigator for Jon Kirkbride, sheriff of Bakken County. She leaves behind no memories worth keeping: her husband is dead, her boss has made no bones about disliking her, and she’s looking forward to new responsibilities and the higher salary underwritten by North Dakota’s sudden oil boom. But Bakken County has its own issues. For one thing, it’s cold—a whole lot colder than the coldest weather Cassie’s ever imagined. For another, the job she turns out to have been hired for—leading an investigation her new boss doesn’t feel he can entrust to his own force—makes her queasy. The biggest problem, though, is one she doesn’t know about until it slaps her in the face. A fatal car accident that was anything but accidental has jarred loose a stash of methamphetamines and cash that’s become the center of a battle between the Sons of Freedom, Bakken County’s traditional drug sellers, and MS-13, the Salvadorian upstarts who are muscling in on their territory. It’s a setup that leaves scant room for law enforcement officers or for Kyle Westergaard, the 12-year-old paperboy damaged since birth by fetal alcohol syndrome, who’s walked away from the wreck with a prize all too many people would kill for.
A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read.Pub Date: July 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-58321-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
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