Glasgow is as much a character—and as contradictory a mix of light and dark—as Dolan’s very human heroine in this complex...
The murder of a prominent Scottish lawyer reopens an old case and new wounds.
When a hung-over Maddalena di Rio Shannon, deputy Procurator Fiscal, wakes up next to a strange man, at least they’re both fully clothed. And she knows who he is: Doug Mason, a defense attorney with the Glasgow law firm JCG Miller. Before they can reflect on their semi-compromising situation, Doug gets a text that his boss, Julian Miller, has been killed. Although Maddy has a reputation for interfering in cases long before they come to trial, she resists the temptation to visit the crime scene and instead lets DI Alan Coulter, the lead detective, handle the initial investigation. Coulter learns that Miller, his associate Bill Crichton, and Tom Hughes, a successful real estate developer, had dined together. Crichton left early; Hughes and Miller stayed on until the early hours; then Miller went to his office, where he was shot at his desk. After Maddy discovers by chance that Crichton and Miller’s wife are romantically involved, Crichton begs Maddy to keep his secret shortly before falling from the third floor of his house. As the complications pile up (a missing file, a link to a negligence lawsuit that Maddy had tried and lost, a shipment of guns, a mysterious fourth man in league with Hughes, Miller, and Crichton), Maddy must deal with her long-distance lover, ward off Mason’s advances, and decide whether she wants a reunion with her newly reappeared father. She’s 40 and drinks too much, her career is “on a shoogly nail,” her mum’s “a pain in the bahookie,” and she should let others handle the Miller case. But she won’t give it up, despite a warning that she may be the next target.
Glasgow is as much a character—and as contradictory a mix of light and dark—as Dolan’s very human heroine in this complex sequel to Potter’s Field (2015).Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-908251-68-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Dufour
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Tepid terrors along the way to a mildly surprising end.
Suburban thriller from the prolific Coben (No Second Chance, 2002, etc.), about a perfect husband who disappears when a photo from the past shows up in the latest batch from the photomat.
Perfectly in love since their romantic meeting in France 15 years earlier, Jack and Grace Lawson are living the suburban dream: Windstar, Saab, daughter, son. He makes lots of money, she makes lots of art. There is a teeny flaw. Grace limps. It’s the scar she bears from the trauma she endured before the trip to France. There was this rock concert. Shots were fired. Panic. Deaths. Heroism. Cowardice. Badly mangled Grace made it out of a coma with a week or two of memory gone and a healthy dislike of big crowds. Suddenly the superperfect life she has built from the ruins has gone off the rails. Tucked in among a set of newly developed photos is a snap taken sometime in the ’80s. It shows a group of young people, possibly hip for the decade, and one of the lads, while hairier and callower, is clearly Jack. The insertion could only have been at the hands of the slacker in the Kodak kiosk, but he’s disappeared. And, upon viewing the photo, so has Jack, leaving Grace to ask that old reliable story-starting question: “Just who is this man I thought I knew?” Answers must be found quickly, for handsome Jack has been captured by a cold-blooded, sadistic, Korean killer and lies senseless in the boot of the stolen family minivan. Detective assistance comes from a rogue District Attorney, a wacky girlfriend, a lovelorn neighbor, a tough Jewish cop with a hole in his heart where his wife used to be, a shadowy, powerful mob guy whose son died at the rock concert, and possibly from Jimmy X, the rocker whose concert seems to have started the present subdivisional mayhem all those years ago.
Tepid terrors along the way to a mildly surprising end.Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-94791-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2004
You have seven days to live after reading this review. Is that your phone ringing?
First in a trilogy by a newcomer publishing house that promises high-class works from Japan.
Ring has sold three million copies in its native country, says Vertical, been filmed there, and the film remade here as a postmodern horror mystery released by DreamWorks as The Ring. In one month in 1990, four Japanese students who live fairly near each other die mysteriously of heart failure. Tomoko Oishi dies in the family kitchen, Shuichi Iwata on his motorcycle while waiting for the light to change at an intersection, and Haruko Tsuji and Takehiko Nomi in the front seat of a car while undressing for sexplay. All four have faces constricted with horror and seem to be pulling their heads off or blinding their vision. Tomoko happens to be the niece of Kazuyuki Asakawa, a journalist, who links all the deaths and sees a story in it. Japanese journalism has been through a heavy period of occult reports, and Asakawa’s editor only hopes it has all died down. A card Asakawa finds in Tomoko’s desk leads him to discover that all four victims had watched a video tape they’d been warned against viewing—a tape, as it happens, that’s something of a virus (in Asakawa, its horrific images cause sweat and shortness of breath). Then comes the message: Those who view these images are fated to die at this exact moment one week from now. If you do not wish to die, you must follow these instructions exactly . . . . Then the phone rings (hence Ring) and unspeakable bugs invade Asakawa until he slams down the receiver. Too late, though: he has a week to live. He brings in brainy Ruiji to help him, and Ruiji watches the tape. This stifling sense—is it an evil energy? Then Asakawa’s wife and daughter watch it . . . .
You have seven days to live after reading this review. Is that your phone ringing?Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-932234-00-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Vertical
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2003
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
