A complex back story and some awkward attempts to convey the magic of the lost singer’s music make for a slow start. But...
A disgraced journalist and a young violinist seek a charismatic rock star in parallel quests.
Jack Parlabane’s two-decade career as an investigative reporter, first in his native Scotland and then on the international scene, has always relied on a certain improvisational approach to obtaining information. But when he went too far, he lost everything, even though he stuck to his principles and didn’t name his source. Now he’s washed up, divorced, childless, lonely, and wary of an offer from Mairi Lafferty, the younger sister of one of his best friends. She’s on the rise as the manager of the rock band Savage Earth Heart, whose leader, Heike Gunn, has gone missing. Monica Halcrow also learns the art of improvisation when she joins Heike’s band as the fiddle player and starts to break free of her classical training. She becomes preoccupied with understanding the manipulative, controlling Heike, who, like her, grew up on a remote island off the Scottish coast. On the band’s European tour, Monica ventures even further into new territory and comes to suspect, as Parlabane does in following the band’s trail, that what seems like a simple merchandising ploy is actually a front for something more sinister. When Parlabane can no longer avoid the possibility that Heike may have been killed for information she shouldn’t have had, he also confronts uncomfortable truths about his own life. But a subtle twist in Monica’s account of the band’s tour leads Parlabane to a shocking discovery and a slender hope.
A complex back story and some awkward attempts to convey the magic of the lost singer’s music make for a slow start. But Brookmyre (Bred in the Bone, 2104, etc.) builds momentum and combines the two distinct narrative voices in a clever duet.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2364-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and...
In Pinborough’s (Behind Her Eyes, 2018, etc.) twisty, decade-spanning, multivoiced thriller, everyone has secrets: teenager Ava; her mom, Lisa; and Lisa’s best friend, Marilyn.
On the surface, all three women fulfill the roles expected of them, and they support and love one another, but they don’t truly know each other. Ava, a competitive swimmer, is finishing up her exams and sneaking around with her first boyfriend while overly protective mom Lisa is about to clinch a big contract at work—and maybe even go on a date with a handsome millionaire client. Marilyn has been dealing with headaches at home, but she’s still game for a shopping trip to outfit Lisa for that big date. Soon, however, they will discover that someone else in their lives has a secret much darker than any they carry. This person is a murderer who is stalking a childhood friend who, they believe, betrayed their deepest trust. There are a lot of plot twists and reveals within the novel, some of which are surprising, some of which are expected. Pinborough weaves several different time periods and several different narrative voices to create layers of character and conflict, but the characters are types often found in psychological thrillers, and while their problems are often relatable, at least at first, they aren’t particularly engaging. It’s clear which decisions, and which silences, are going to get them into trouble, and yet, as people do, they carry on anyway. The one element that sets Pinborough’s novel apart from the slew of similar thrillers is the emphasis on female empowerment and the power of female relationships. These women need no one to save them, no knights in shining armor or handsome cops. As Marilyn succinctly puts it, “Fuck. That. Shit.”
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and turns along the way.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-285679-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
A terrifying page-turner with the complexities of fatherhood at its core.
The serial killer who terrorized a small British town by kidnapping and murdering five little boys has been locked up for over a decade. So who could have taken 6-year-old Neil Spencer?
"The first forty-eight hours following a disappearance are the most crucial." And yet one of those hours has gone by the time Neil's separated parents realize he never made it from his father's house to his mother's, a short walk he took alone. One of the main investigators of the crime is DI Pete Willis, who cracked a similar case years back and has never quite recovered from it, especially since one of the missing boys was never found. Is there an accomplice still on the loose? As Willis and his colleagues comb the town for clues about the disappearance, a recently widowed novelist and his young son move into what they don't yet know is called "the scary house." Jake is a bright but isolated child who has relied heavily on an imaginary friend and a Packet of Special Things for comfort since he came home from school one day to find his mother's lifeless body at the foot of the stairs. This move is meant to be a much-needed fresh start for the grieving and bewildered father and son, but from the start nothing goes right. On Jake's first day at his new school, the other children draw him into discussion about the missing boy and the Whisper Man who took him. Soon enough, Jake hears whispering too. North's novel pits nasty men submerged in evil against decent men struggling to do good; several father-son pairs reflect the challenges and darker possibilities of this relationship, though plotlines involving female characters are a bit undeveloped.
A terrifying page-turner with the complexities of fatherhood at its core.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31799-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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