Tattoo artists will be interested in the as-if-born-in-fire origins of Lisbeth’s body art, while fans of Larsson, while...
“First you find out the truth. Then you take revenge.” Thus the ninjalike guiding ethos of Lagercrantz’s (The Girl in the Spider's Web, 2015, etc.) latest installment in the Lisbeth Salander series.
One thing that anyone who’s crossed paths with Lisbeth, the lethal heroine who bowed into the world of mystery with the late Steig Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008), should have learned by now is that it’s best not to cross paths with her at all. That’s a lesson Benito learns the hard way: the gang leader in Flodberga Prison, where Lisbeth finds herself after yet another brush with the law, interrupts Lisbeth’s studies of mathematics and quantum mechanics one too many times, picking on Faria, a young Bangladeshi inmate, and ends up just this side of death. She had it coming, of course, but the whole encounter opens up a whole 'nother can of worms, from shadowy immigrants to Russian hackers and crusading journalists and—well, suffice it to say that, in a turn reminiscent of Jean-Christophe Grangé’s Crimson Rivers, there’s some genetic tinkering with twins involved, too. Whether Lisbeth’s doppelgänger is dragon-adorned awaits the reader’s investigation, but most of the action, always satisfying if sometimes a little far-fetched, centers on Lisbeth and her various and often violent encounters with corrupt prison officials and guards, corrupt CEOs, corrupt mental health professionals, corrupt government workers, and—the list of not-so-nice people goes on, and Lisbeth, as always, serves as an avenging angel who herself isn’t the nicest of people. Lagercrantz, Larsson’s appointed heir, does serviceable work in all this, and if his version lacks some of Larsson’s ironic touch and politically charged contempt for the nasty undercurrents flowing beneath Sweden’s clear waters, he doesn’t falter in the mayhem department.
Tattoo artists will be interested in the as-if-born-in-fire origins of Lisbeth’s body art, while fans of Larsson, while perhaps not thrilled, certainly won’t be disappointed.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-451-49432-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
SEEN & HEARD
All the emotional intensity Slaughter’s readers expect, now focused on a diabolical domestic terrorist. Don’t say you...
Pediatrician/medical examiner Sara Linton’s path to marrying Will Trent, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, runs into apocalyptic obstacles only Slaughter could devise.
To begin with, Sara’s mother objects so strenuously to Will that she won’t even utter his name. But her opposition can’t compete with the carnage that erupts when Sara and Will (The Kept Woman, 2016, etc.), hearing the sounds of a bomb near Emory University, rush to the scene and encounter along the way the aftermath of a three-car collision. Stopping to help, they soon smell something amiss, but not soon enough to prevent them from being overpowered and separated by the supposed victims. Will is beaten to the ground; Sara is whisked off in a car whose occupants include Michelle Spivey, a scientist with the Centers for Disease Control who was abducted from under her young daughter’s nose a month ago. Arriving at the mountain encampment of the Invisible Patriot Army, a paramilitary cadre determined to make America white again, Sara is first forced to treat the wounds of the men who kidnapped her and then asked by IPA leader Dash to remain so that she can treat an outbreak of measles that’s swept through the children in the camp, including Dash’s daughter, whose mother is Gwen Novak, the daughter of Martin Novak, whose history of anti-government bank robberies has made him a high-value federal prisoner. As Will schemes to infiltrate the camp disguised as a new recruit, Sara is dismayed to find that no matter what she does, the children she’s tending keep getting sicker and sicker. Even the most ardent fans of Slaughter’s white-hot thrillers (Pieces of Her, 2018, etc.) will be shocked and horror-stricken by the outrage Dash has planned.
All the emotional intensity Slaughter’s readers expect, now focused on a diabolical domestic terrorist. Don’t say you weren’t warned.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-285808-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Kelly’s cats are magical, but not magical enough to distinguish them from a clowder of kitty cozies.
Determined to clear a friend in a businessman’s murder, a Minnesota librarian gets invaluable help from her two magical cats, who are there for her as long as the sardines don’t run out.
Kathleen Paulson is psyched when her brother, Ethan, and his band, the Flaming Gerbils, come to stay with her in Mayville Heights, her adopted hometown. Ethan’s excited not only to spend some quality time with his sister, but also to get to know her closest friend, Maggie, who seems as if she could be more than a friend to him. Good vibes abound until Ethan’s newest band mate, temporary lead guitarist Derek Hanson, gets into a tussle with a man at a bar the whole crew is visiting. Though Kathleen doesn’t condone violence, the man in question, businessman Lewis Wallace, seems to have had it coming to him after kicking a veteran’s service dog. Kathleen doesn’t know much about Wallace, and what she hears isn’t good, but rumors that follow the skirmish suggest he’s come to town to turn over a new leaf. After the incident with Derek, Kathleen, a born animal lover, doesn’t find Wallace sympathetic until she stumbles on his dead body. Kathleen’s boyfriend, town detective Marcus Gordon, is fairly certain that Wallace has been murdered, but it’s hard to know who had a motive besides Derek. In an effort to clear the guitarist, Kathleen tries to figure out who else had reason to do Wallace harm. Variously supported by her two magical cats, Owen and Hercules (The Cats Came Back, 2018, etc.), Kathleen uses her research skills and social networks to suss out the truth.
Kelly’s cats are magical, but not magical enough to distinguish them from a clowder of kitty cozies.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-440-00113-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
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