Unsavory characters immersed in giddy melodrama, both in and out of the courtroom.
In Manolakas’ legal thriller, the suspicious death of an actress turns the spotlight on the seediest parts of Hollywood.
After a film in production suffers a fatal on-set accident, actress Kaitlin O’Keefe takes over a lead role. In the process, she becomes entangled in sexual affairs with both the director, Nick Claren, and her entertainment lawyer, Josh Stein. Everyone is shocked when, one day, Kaitlin dies in an apparent fall. The Malibu detectives’ ensuing investigation uncovers evidence that suggests someone killed her. An arrest and a murder trial follow, but it’s perhaps not the slam-dunk that the prosecutor was hoping for. For starters, there are a number of viable suspects, including the two men she was sleeping with, as well as their wives; Kaitlin even had a stalker who’d been obsessed with her since the two shared a scene in an acting class. The attorneys on both sides of the courtroom (ADA Duane Brown and “seasoned” criminal defense lawyer Greg Sobel), through direct and cross-examinations, threaten to expose scandals and corruption that surround the moviemaking business on the Pacific Coast. Even with half of Manolakas’ novel focused on the murder trial, the narrative constitutes a thoroughly entertaining soap opera. Most in the cast are deliciously unlikable as they bask in self-indulgence and apathy, including the presiding judge, who seems more concerned with his personal enjoyment than the legal proceedings. (“Ashby grinned inside. He had a golden opportunity to bring down this arrogant little star of his own personal tabloid show. ‘I have to agree with A.D.A. Brown, here, Mr. Sobel. No ROR, no bail. Mr. Stein is remanded into custody pending trial.’”) The author’s brisk narrative and compact chapters consistently fascinate as they spotlight the characters’ intersecting lives and explore all the ingredients that make up a trial. While some readers will guess the ending, it likely won’t diminish their overall satisfaction.
Unsavory characters immersed in giddy melodrama, both in and out of the courtroom.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2021
ISBN: 9781628050264
Page Count: 454
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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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