by David Benson ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
Several wealthy middle-aged Manhattanites—the baby boomers of the title—have been gruesomely murdered, and Detective Carina...
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Best Books Of 2012
Benson’s tightly plotted crime thriller is sure to please fans of police procedurals.
Several wealthy middle-aged Manhattanites—the baby boomers of the title—have been gruesomely murdered, and Detective Carina Quintana senses a connection. But how can she prove it? The killer, if he exists, varies his methods and targets and leaves no tangible evidence. Age and wealth are all that the victims have in common. Recently transferred from Miami after her partner was convicted of drug trafficking, Quintana struggles to adjust to New York City and deal with the aftermath of testifying against her former co-workers. Now partnered with the sarcastic Pete Simpson, Quintana attempts to catch the killer without creating panic among the city’s elites. Complications from her personal life—a Cayman bank account, an old lover and a connection from Miami—add to her troubles. Benson’s characters are well-drawn, and Quintana is a noteworthy heroine. The author handles her past and sexuality with a light hand, not overplaying the character. Instead, he keeps her guarded and subtle, without verging into clichéd stereotypes about damaged cops. While her decision-making is sometimes clouded, she is believable as a police officer. Secondary characters—the caffeine-addicted Simpson, a particularly droll FBI crime profiler, and New York City itself—are realistically portrayed, adding interest. Chapters narrated from the point of view of the killer contrast interestingly with Quintana’s chapters; comparison reveals both characters are relatively isolated and self-protective. The novel’s pacing is energetic and engaging, and the story flows almost too quickly. Happily, Benson’s epilogue suggests that Quintana may return in a future novel set in Miami Beach. A compelling police procedural with a contemporary setting and an intriguing heroine worthy of a series.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Steve Stephenson K.M. Tedrick ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2016
In this intricate tale featuring an intense warrior, worldbuilding takes precedence over character development and a...
A human prince must defeat a powerful vampire warlock in this debut YA fantasy novel with sci-fi and horror elements.
Lord Taza, a vampire warlock and former emperor on planet Narlos, plans to transform all the inhabitants of planet Muiria into his vampire servants. Gifted the magical Staff of Adois by an evil goddess, Taza seems invincible—he has already transmuted many of the underground elven race of illanni—except for the “dire prophecy” of his downfall by human Prince Tarquin of Partha. After Taza’s assassin kills Tarquin’s cousin by mistake, wizard Celedant appears before the prince with an invitation to “take on a challenge worthy of your ancient Parthian blood.” Hungry for adventure, Tarquin leaves that very night to join the dwarven army at Celedant’s behest. After years of battling orcs alongside new dwarven friends, Tarquin rises through the ranks as a fierce, loyal soldier. Meanwhile, Celedant embarks on his own dangerous quest to obtain the Staff of Adaman, the only weapon that can defeat Taza’s Staff of Adois and maintain the equilibrium between good and evil. At the same time, a noble elven daughter, Morganna, foments rebellion among Taza’s illanni in the hope of joining the aboveground “children of light” Wood Elves. As his enemies amass, Taza uses the Staff of Adois to summon monsters from other dimensions. Luckily, Muiria has its own collection of magical beasts, including telepathic dragons and gods willing to interfere at opportune moments, resulting in creative battles. This ambitious novel is heavily inspired by The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones series. At its heart, the plot that Stephenson and Tedrick concoct is a simple hero’s journey, but a plethora of characters and subplots, as well as the detailed histories of multiple races—and planets—stretching back “thousands of years before the continents broke apart,” drowns the narrative. When the forces of good finally converge, battle sequences are carefully described with a few surprising twists. Yet the final chapter ends abruptly with many loose ends, suggesting further additions to this already sprawling story.
In this intricate tale featuring an intense warrior, worldbuilding takes precedence over character development and a coherent narrative.Pub Date: June 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61296-717-2
Page Count: 366
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Theodore M. Wandzilak ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 2016
An odd, nostalgic compilation, but a few poems about hospital patients see keenly into the condition of the individual body...
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Wandzilak’s debut poetry collection spans a lifetime, musing on place, change, and mortality in light, occasional verse.
Built in the 1950s, the real-life East Deck Motel in Montauk, New York, was a mecca for beachgoers, surfers, and tourists of all stripes. But in 2015, its future was uncertain. In a sense, some of these poems, set at the motel, read as elegies—nostalgic celebrations of the seashore’s many moods. The title poem’s speaker reminisces about a night of love in the dunes, away from the crowd, and it’s gloomy with foreboding: “I could barely tell land from sea / I knew where I was, but not exactly.” With the lover’s “cold hand” in his, the speaker glimpses “the heart of a tear.” Other poems cast an eye over cultural high points, as in the longish poem “A Partial Autobiography.” The short, free-verse lines begin with oddity (“I was born with a remnant third nipple / I did not know what that meant for me”) but smooth out to more familiar touchstones: “I saw Yul Brynner play The King and I…. // I have seen the unicorns at the Cloisters //….I caught a wahoo in Turks and Caicos.” The oddity gathers and increases, however, in another cultural-event poem, this time on the occasion of seeing famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma in concert in 2013. The lilting cadence of “I ate elk with a runcible spoon!” proceeds to a playful but peculiar after-concert meal: “Later we fed Mr. Ma toasted farro / As he proceeded to eat my bone marrow!” Whimsy is one thing, but word-pairing for the sake of rhyme is another, as in this quatrain: “I have delivered fourteen lives / Each followed by fourteen placentas / Therein, I found elation upon this earth, / Unequaled to a dinner of lobster polenta.” The poet’s background as a surgeon also appears with a poetic nod to delivering bad news; in it, the narrator glances daily into a nearby cemetery, where a patient will soon be buried. A compilation of similarly medical-themed poems would be truly select.
An odd, nostalgic compilation, but a few poems about hospital patients see keenly into the condition of the individual body and soul.Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5144-6727-5
Page Count: 54
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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