A grim but exciting and compelling mystery even in its most disconcerting moments.
A young woman unearths troublesome secrets in her late grandfather’s past in Vancise’s dark thriller.
After a family tragedy five years ago, Evie Day left her small town behind for another Arkansas city. Now, in 1991, her beloved grandfather Ollie’s death has brought the 23-year-old back home. While perusing family photos, she finds a mysterious image of an unknown woman standing near a tiny wooden box. It’s connected to Ollie’s first case as a uniform cop—and it’s only one of a series of cryptic items that Evie stumbles upon, including an old vial of blood and a knitting needle with dried gore on its tip. She’s determined to make sense of it all, but her investigation leads to more questions. Who, for example, is the “street lady” she keeps seeing in her immediate vicinity? Evie’s amateur sleuthing later results in someone’s breaking into her apartment to leave her a threatening note. Elsewhere, a man named Charlie Baker, with a therapist’s help, is attempting to unlock repressed memories of unspeakable trauma, which ultimately links to Evie’s investigation. Vancise’s young hero is intriguingly complicated. For example, she gives her mom the cold shoulder for initially mysterious reasons, pines for a boyfriend she broke up with, and digs into the opaque mystery of her grandfather out of sheer curiosity. It’s a treat to follow Evie as she gradually works out the puzzle, although when the story introduces her friend’s psychic ability and FBI ties, it feels a bit too convenient. The unrelentingly bleak scenes involving Charlie teem with violent images, some of which involve children. However, it’s a testament to Vancise’s writing that the most graphic sequences are implied rather than excessively detailed. The author also excels at offering subtle updates, with Evie doing quick, helpful run-throughs of what she’s learned so far and what she’s still looking for. Numerous surprises pop up, and not all in the final act; however, one of the later ones packs the meanest punch.
A grim but exciting and compelling mystery even in its most disconcerting moments.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2022
ISBN: 9781639886913
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1992
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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