A dizzying romp through murder and mayhem, and a pleasantly distracting beach read.
Queens, New York, high school principal Maria Bruno Cohen and police detective Joe Viola pair up again as Hassle High is struck by another wave of murders in this mystery sequel.
Sixtysomething Maria wasn’t supposed to work this summer. She and her husband, Al Cohen, have some work to do on their marriage, so they planned a river cruise in France for the end of August. Then a call comes from Dr. Kane, the school superintendent: Summer school principal Deb Jones has gone missing, and he needs Maria to fill in. As it turns out, Deb’s fiance, social studies teacher and coed softball team coach Frank Major, has also disappeared. The following morning, as Maria drinks some coffee prepared by her capable secretary/assistant Nan Summers, Joe walks into the office, as handsome as ever; in fact, he’s the reason that Maria’s marriage is floundering. Then Meccarello-Gerson’s (Murder at Hassle High, 2018) second series mystery really shifts into gear. Within a few pages, Frank’s body is found at John F. Kennedy International Airport, in the trunk of his pricey, bright red BMW M760i. Naturally, ex-cop and incorrigible sleuth Maria immediately joins the investigation, much to her husband’s displeasure. As the body count mounts and the list of possible suspects lengthens, she seeks help from the delightfully unmanageable “Nut Squad”—a group of aging, teenage class-repeaters who are totally devoted to her. Meccarello-Gerson’s principal protagonist is a fine narrator, who leads readers through a dangerous maze of jealous ex-lovers, blackmail, illegal gambling, and secret liaisons with edgy sarcasm and self-deprecating humor. The complicated plot threatens to become unwieldy at times, as assorted bad guys provide misdirection that keeps Maria and Joe off-balance. Happily, the romantic tension between those two lightens things up. One thing is certain: Hassle High will be a lot less interesting if the Nut Squad ever makes it to graduation. The book’s only sour notes are its numerous copy editing oversights (“ten thorty,” etc.).
A dizzying romp through murder and mayhem, and a pleasantly distracting beach read.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Kurti Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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