Despite frequently giving into thriller clichés, a story notable for the decline of its sinister, once-harmless villain.
Storm’s (Reaper’s Gate, 2013) novel traces the hunt to find an unlikely serial killer.
After FBI agent Melvin Gibson—“not a model agent by any measure”—crashes a boat in Florida while in hot pursuit of a suspect, he and his loyal partner, Khoren, are reassigned to Chicago. Though they’re highly disappointed by the move, little do they know that a terrifying criminal awaits in the Windy City. Mild-mannered Evan Felder may seem like a perfectly average citizen with his wife, kids and house in the suburbs, but when a series of headaches reveals a brain tumor, his life changes forever. As Evan becomes tormented with constant pain, he withdraws from the familiar world around him and focuses instead on committing grisly murders. Targeting homosexuals (for reasons explained later), once-harmless Evan not only kills but mutilates his victims. With his twisted audacity garnering media attention, the hunt is on for the killer known as the Mantis—“the body of the victim had appeared as though a giant Mantis had gotten hold of the body and feasted on the fleshy parts.” Embodying much of the standard rebel-cop fare, Gibson is an agent who gets results even if he has to ruffle a few feathers along the way: “Bullshit! Special Agent Gibson, must I remind you that you work for me and the Bureau?” While his pursuers don’t offer much in the way of novel police characters, what keeps the search for the Mantis lively is Evan’s descent into madness. Never one to settle, he searches for new victims and new ways to shock the public, calling for even more swiftness from the forces trying to stop him. Though Evan isn’t as clever as Hannibal Lecter, they share a sense of depravity and self-confidence, making Evan a memorable villain, especially since he appears to be “the poster-child for ‘Mr. Average America.’ ”
Despite frequently giving into thriller clichés, a story notable for the decline of its sinister, once-harmless villain.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0985122881
Page Count: -
Publisher: Second Chance Publications
Review Posted Online: Nov. 27, 2013
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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