Though Knopf (Cop Job, 2015, etc.) keeps the pot steadily simmering, this seventh case, middling for the series, is more...
Sam Acquillo tackles a cold case that arouses his warmest feelings: the murder of his father 40 years ago.
Not that Sam was André Acquillo’s biggest fan. “If you think I care what happened to my old man, you’re wrong,” he tells Orfio Pagliero, a mob scion who turned legit but never turned against his own father, Sicilian gangster Leon Pagliero. Orfio has been linked to André’s murder by a tip from true-crime writer Trevor Cleary, whose brother, Father Nelson Cleary, Sam’s sought out to learn more about a crucifix found at the bar where his father was killed. Sam insists to each of them in turn that he feels nothing but gratitude to the person who ended his father’s life, and an overlong but heartfelt series of flashbacks to his childhood and adolescence provides abundant evidence why he would’ve hated the father who treated him with such casual cruelty. Yet Sam not only allows himself to be talked into reopening this ice-cold case, but persuades Lt. Madelyn Wollencroft, a Bronx cold-case specialist, to join him in his joyless quest. Shaking the trees produces the usual fruit—somebody tails Sam, somebody tries to kill him, and everybody he meets pronounces his name without sounding out the L’s—but he persists. By the final revelation he’s not only bonded improbably with Wollencroft, but discovered so much more about his family than he ever cared to know that the identification of his father’s killer comes as a distinct anticlimax.
Though Knopf (Cop Job, 2015, etc.) keeps the pot steadily simmering, this seventh case, middling for the series, is more notable for its human relationships than its whodunit.Pub Date: May 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-57962-429-3
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Permanent Press
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
This is secondhand tough-guy stuff, memorable only in that it feels like you've read it all before.
A former mob enforcer–turned–private eye is called in to investigate the savage murder of a Mafia leg-breaker in New York's Hudson Valley and finds himself on the trail of corporate espionage and a serial killer long believed dead.
The second book in Barron's series featuring Isaiah Coleridge (Blood Standard, 2018) seems, more than the debut, an obvious attempt to establish Coleridge as a strongman smartass in the Jack Reacher mold. The fight scenes are the written equivalent of action-movie choreography but without suspense, because the setup—Isaiah being constantly outnumbered—is so clearly a prelude for the no-sweat beat downs he doles out to the various thugs who get in his way. There's nary a memorable wisecrack in the entire book. What does stick in the mind are the sections that go out of their way to be writerly. It's not enough to say that it was a starry night in the Alaskan wilderness. Coleridge (the name is a clue to the series' literary aspirations) says, "I could've read a book by the cascading illumination of the stars." A later flash of insight is conveyed by "The scalpel of grim epiphany sliced into my consciousness." What with the narrative that spreads like spider cracks in glass and the far-too-frequent flashbacks to the man who was Coleridge's mentor, you might wish another scalpel had made its way through the manuscript.
This is secondhand tough-guy stuff, memorable only in that it feels like you've read it all before.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-1289-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not exactly groundbreaking, but fans will enjoy this cozy Christmas addition to a long-running series.
Christmas is nigh, and there’s a murder to solve.
Inspector Nivens may have ambitions far beyond his local posting, but he’s so hapless as a detective that it’s no surprise when he loses a sensitive case involving the murder of well-to-do Margaret Starling in her yard to Inspector Gerald Witherspoon of the Metropolitan Police. Witherspoon, whose record is stellar, is independently wealthy, good-natured, and unaware that for years his staff and friends, especially his clever housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, have fed him the clues that have been indispensable in closing his murder cases (Mrs. Jeffries Delivers the Goods, 2019, etc.). Determined to solve the puzzle of Margaret’s murder before Christmas, Witherspoon’s staff scatter throughout the neighborhood of the Starling residence, each of them searching for clues using their questioning methods tailored to every social stratum of Victorian London, from the housemaid to the well-heeled neighbors. Margaret’s recent odd behavior seems to have something to do with the Angel Alms Society of Fulham and Putney, where she was a generous donor who served on the advisory board. She was also suing Mrs. Huxton, her next-door neighbor, whom she accused of trying to ruin her reputation. Alibis are tested and possible enemies questioned. The suspects range from that neighbor to Margaret’s deceased niece’s husband to the vicar of St. Andrew’s Church, all of whom have reason to be angry with her. Mrs. Jeffries struggles to get on the right track as other members of the amateur detective group pass information to Witherspoon’s constable, who’s in on their scheme. It all comes down to love or money.
Not exactly groundbreaking, but fans will enjoy this cozy Christmas addition to a long-running series.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-49224-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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