Readers introduced to Nova's new hero (is he a hero?) will be eager for his return.
The first in a Tinseltown-noir series by a veteran novelist.
Nova plainly had some fun with this, and the reader likely will as well. This isn’t exactly a mystery, because it's apparent early on who the bad guy is. Terry Peregrine is a vacuous, pretty-boy actor with a taste for underage girls. The very first sentence finds protagonist Quinn Farrell sensing that “Terry was thinking about killing the girl from Alaska.” Is Farrell the good guy? (Is anyone?) He’s a fixer, someone who makes problems go away. He has a vending-machine company that helps him launder cash, and he often seems to have five grand on him to persuade those who present a problem to disappear. The girl from Alaska represents a problem for Terry, and she wants way more than five grand to disappear. Farrell works for the producer of the film that Terry is currently shooting, and that producer’s goals may or may not align with Terry’s. Much of what plot there is involves these elements—cash, disappearance, pedophilia, the possibility of murder. Farrell has a bit of a stutter, which embarrasses him, and a triggering impulse toward fury, which he does his best to keep under control. He is deeply intuitive, surprisingly philosophical and well-read, and a bit of a romantic. He falls for his neighbor who has just moved in, and her work with teenagers who have terminal cancer gives them both some perspective on life’s big issues. Interconnecting subplots feature a python, a potentially rabid raccoon, a pair of Russian bagman thugs, a detective who once arrested Farrell and now occasionally helps him, and more girls who become involved with Terry. The insidious glitter and evil of Los Angeles and the promises and betrayals of Hollywood inevitably loom large, and a dark, bittersweet humor marks the tone. None of the corpses comes as much of a surprise, and there isn’t much crime-solving involved, but lively writing and colorful characters keep the reader engaged.
Readers introduced to Nova's new hero (is he a hero?) will be eager for his return.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950691-22-7
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You’ll be glad you did.
A successful Vermont podcaster who’s elicited confessions from dozens of criminals finds herself on the other side of the table, in the hottest of hot seats, over her own troubled past.
Poe Webb was only 13 when she saw her mother, Margaret McMillian, get stabbed to death by the man she’d picked up for a quickie. Poe had vowed revenge, but how could a kid find and avenge herself on a stranger who’d vanished as quickly as he appeared? In the long years since then, Poe’s made a name for herself as a top true-crime podcaster who routinely invites her guests to tell her audience exactly what they did. Now, she’s being pressed, and pressed hard, by Ian Hindley, whose fake name echoes those of England’s Moors Murderers, to join him in a livestream her fans will find riveting because, as Hindley tells her, he’s actually Leopold Hutchins, the pickup who stabbed her mother 14 times when she failed to use her safe word. Skeptical? Hindley knows endless details about the killing that were never released by the police. If Poe won’t do the broadcast, Hindley threatens to harm everyone she loves: her father; her producer and lover, Kip Nguyen; and her black Lab, Bailey. And there’s one more complication that makes the pressure on Poe even more unbearable. Seven years ago, against all odds, she succeeded in tracking Leopold Hutchins from Burlington to New York and killing him herself. In fact, it’s that murder that Hindley most wants her to talk about. Which bully is more fearsome, the man who’s threatening her or the man she killed?
Better set aside several uninterrupted hours for this toxic rocket. You’ll be glad you did.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781464226229
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.
A widowed and disgraced plastic surgeon is drawn into a Russian oligarch’s evil schemes.
Witherspoon’s adult fiction debut, co-authored with thrillermeister Coben, opens as heart surgery performed by Dr. Marc Adams in a North African refugee camp is interrupted by the explosive invasion of armed militants. It's the last we will see of Marc in this dimension. The next chapter jumps ahead one year to a ceremony at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where his widow, Maggie McCabe, is supposed to be presenting an award in honor of her mother. Miserable and anxious about appearing in public after having lost her medical license, she consults with her late husband on her phone—not via supernatural means, but using a "griefbot," an amazingly lifelike and functional AI app created by her genius sister, Sharon. Once the griefbot coaxes her to brave the sneering masses, she learns she’s been replaced on the podium anyway. But she runs into a former professor, a celebrity plastic surgeon, who requests a meeting with her at his office in New York and won’t take no for an answer. Next thing she knows, there’s $10 million in her bank account and she’s on a private plane heading to a palace outside Moscow where she’s been engaged to perform off-the-record surgery on billionaire Oleg Ragoravich (new face) and his girlfriend, Nadia (new boobs). And…we’re off. A whirl of surgeries, chases, and escapes ensues as Maggie gradually comes to understand who these people are and what they have in mind for her, and how it connects to Marc and their missing friend and business partner, Trace Packer. She is aided by her delightful father-in-law, Porkchop, owner of a biker bar in New York City and a very handy guy to have on your team if you've run afoul of an international criminal organization. From the palace in Rublevka the action moves to Dubai and then Bordeaux, climaxing in a high-stakes illegal heart transplant. But wait—is Marc really dead? What happened to Trace? Who is Nadia really? Though these smoldering questions don’t quite catch fire, it's a good first try for Witherspoon.
Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781538774700
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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