Exquisite in its gloom; should earn even more Ross Duncan fans.
Ross Duncan searches 1934 Chicago for the ever-elusive Irishman in a tale of vengeance (Sleep Not, My Child, 2013, etc.), the third novel in Bartley’s hard-boiled thriller series.
When former bank robber Duncan can’t find the Irishman, the man responsible for a loved one’s death, he does the next best thing: kills the Irishman’s brother and steals his girlfriend, Evelyn. The Irishman’s retaliation catches others in the crossfire. A Chicago criminal organization grants Duncan permission to hunt down the Irish gangster, provided that Duncan works with a killer-for-hire who’s rarely sober. The historical thriller showcases recognizable faces for readers keeping up with the series. Each character struggles with dramatic entanglements; in addition to the Irishman and Evelyn, there’s Duncan’s friend and bank-robbing associate, Jimmy, whose wife is dying; and special agent Trestleman, with whom Duncan shares a tenuous alliance. This installment, however, is more despondent: more violence, more dead bodies and a much more pessimistic Duncan, who’s fixated solely on his vendetta. It’s missing much of the tenderness of the previous entry, in which Duncan was resolute in his pursuit of an abducted boy. But it does show progression for both the hero and story: It’s hard to ignore the image of a .45 resting atop Duncan’s Bible, two items he always carries to signify his acceptance of the violent path. By this time, touches of noir are expected and the crisp dialogue doesn’t disappoint, such as Duncan’s rather blunt appreciation of beauty: “My eyes were filled with what they saw.” And Evelyn may very well be Bartley’s first genuine femme fatale, as the hero is torn between petty resentment over a pornographic photo featuring Evelyn (because of a man whose face can’t be seen) and his complete lack of trust in her. He’s at least smart enough to brace himself when she leads him into an unfamiliar room.
Exquisite in its gloom; should earn even more Ross Duncan fans.Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Peach Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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