At turns thrilling and poignant, this is fine, thoughtful entertainment.
A moving neonoir cruise through Los Angeles, past and present.
Aspiring songwriter Adam Zantz, a Lyft driver, has been shepherding aged folk/pop icon Annie Linden around the city for months, gradually growing attached to the near recluse and enjoying the magnetism of her fame, her complex personality, the way she gives meaning to his down-at-heels life. When she’s found dead in a muddy ditch on Hermosa Beach with, of all things, ripped-out cassette tape entangling her neck, the police finger Annie’s personal assistant, a guy Adam knows couldn’t be the murderer. So, lacking the necessary set of skills almost entirely, he nonetheless decides to play detective and solve the crime himself. Behind the wheel of his beloved silver 2016 Jetta, his home away from home (his actual home, sadly, is a storage space), he creeps and speeds by turn through the streets of Malibu, West Adams, and the Valley, casing joints, interviewing suspicious friends and family, earning some socks on the jaw and even occasional gunfire for his pains. All he has to go on is the existence of a certain mystery tape and the shadow of a stranger from Annie’s dark past; all he has to encourage him is a deepening, post-mortem devotion to this star who felt like the mother he lost. Adrift within the LA worlds of yoga, hot tub sales, and the music convention industry, Adam in time realizes his white-knight derring-do is a sad distraction from an emotional whirlpool that, though drawing him downward to the truth of Annie’s life, also threatens to submerge him in a Pacific Ocean of amateur-gumshoe consequences. Like, say, jail time or even death. In hard-boiled language with an added layer of humor and psychological insight, Weizmann tells a tale reliant on the thrill, and pathos, of popular music. Adam’s quest for truth and justice is permeated by the constant soundtrack inside his head as he moves among Weizmann’s wonderfully drawn cross-section of LA types with pluck and determination, a reluctant though willing Sam Spade for the sensitive slacker in us all.
At turns thrilling and poignant, this is fine, thoughtful entertainment.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781685890308
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Melville House
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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