A high-quality murder mystery with a labyrinthine plot and a memorable heroine.
In Little’s debut thriller, a small-town Connecticut cop investigates a series of murders that she suspects may have been committed by her missing spouse.
Officer Emma Thorne has been dealing with her husband Will Foster’s severe depression. Will, a Yale University professor, hasn’t taught a class in months and has hinted that he’s contemplating suicide. One day, Emma returns home to find that he’s inexplicably disappeared, leaving his wallet, identification, and cellphone behind. A search, with help from fellow officers, turns up nothing. After accepting the job of police chief—a position vacated after her father’s unexpected death—Emma hires private investigator Mark Byrne to focus on locating Will. Emma, meanwhile, is busy with a murder case; a guy whom she dated back in high school initially seems to be a suicide until Emma, working with a forensic pathologist, uncovers foul play. After more bodies are found that are clearly homicides, cops dub the killer “Mr. Sharpie,” as each victim is marked with a letter or number, written in ink. A cryptic text leads Emma to believe that Will is alive, and evidence from murder scenes seems to implicate him in the killings. It seems that all the victims have ties to Emma, so there’s a good chance she may become a suspect, as well—or the next victim. Little’s gleefully convoluted mystery has a first-rate protagonist for a prospective series. Over the course of the story, Emma valiantly deals with a lecherous mayor and uncooperative cops who resent her role as chief. Although many secondary characters show deviousness, Emma’s police dog, Pepper, is refreshingly loyal and reliable. The story features plenty of violence, including brutal homicides and meticulous examination of the corpses. Even the humor is dark, although it’s delivered well; in one scene, for instance, Emma gets rid of an annoying woman who’s fawning over the easygoing Pepper by saying, “I wouldn’t get near her if I were you. She’s vicious.” Intermittent scenes from the killer’s perspective will put readers ahead of the investigators, but that doesn’t make the tale any less nerve-wracking.
A high-quality murder mystery with a labyrinthine plot and a memorable heroine.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-73397-380-9
Page Count: 379
Publisher: Honeysuckle Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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