One of Rosenfelt’s least suspenseful cases despite its unsettlingly serendipitous relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paterson’s laziest lawyer, Andy Carpenter, is dragged from sort-of-retirement back to sort-of-work by one of the world’s most unlikely dog lovers.
Weeks after three top employees of Pharmacon—Alex Vogel, Stephen Mellman, and Robert Giarrusso—are blown up aboard Vogel’s boat off Long Beach Island, speech therapist Beth Morris, whose obsessive hobby is reuniting lost dogs with their owners, gets a phone call from Daniel Simmons claiming ownership of Lucy, a yellow Lab Andy’s Tara Foundation has been sheltering. That would be perfectly normal and even great news if Beth didn’t recognize Simmons’ voice as that of Alex Vogel. At a hastily arranged reunion with Lucy, Vogel admits he escaped the blast that destroyed his boat after the two colleagues who’d been planning to launch a new company with him had already been shot. Not surprisingly, he’s arrested for their murders, leaving Andy with an awful lot of circumstantial evidence to explain. Since Rosenfelt obligingly identifies the real killers as Charlie Phillips and Orlando Bledsoe and since Vogel had recently been dating Carla D’Antoni, the late girlfriend of premier New Jersey mobster Joseph Russo Jr., the only mystery is what pharmaceutical secret provided the motive for the murder. And even that secret is broadly hinted when Pharmacon Founder and CEO Eric Buckner tells Andy that the company’s on the verge of releasing Loraxil, a medication for antibiotic-resistant infections. The resulting complications will appeal mainly to readers sheltering in place over their fears of other infections today’s headlines might have told them about.
One of Rosenfelt’s least suspenseful cases despite its unsettlingly serendipitous relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic.Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25711-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
A fairy tale stuffed with a meaningful moral, this is a funny and heartwarming novel.
A good Italian American daughter’s 30-something rebellion forces her entire family to reckon with their choices, resulting in a happily-ever-after for all that’s like the best affogato: rich, bitter, sweet.
Giuseppina “Jess” Capodimonte Baratta lives in her parents’ basement, and it’s not the finished kind, but more like an old-fashioned cellar with a bed and a dresser. Her family has long struggled with money problems, so many that Jess had to go to community college instead of the four-year institutions her sister and brother attended. At 33, she’s landed back at her childhood home in Lake Como, New Jersey (known for its location between a lake and the Atlantic Ocean), because she’s left her husband, Bobby Bilancia, heir to Bilancia Meats and blue-eyed local heartthrob. Jess may not know what she wants for her life, but it isn’t nightly TV and then several kids with Bobby, whose idea of sophistication runs to capicola-ham rosettes. Then Uncle Louie, the proprietor of Capodimonte Marble and Stone who has mentored Jess as his deputy, dies of a heart attack and leaves the business in her hands. Unfortunately, there’s also some funny business that includes a side hustle with an associate known as “Googs” and a quarry’s worth of unpaid taxes. Jess chooses to ignore her overbearing mother’s advice and fly to Carrara, the home of the world’s most beautiful stones—and stonemasons, like Angelo Strazza, whose specialty is applying fragile gold leaf to carved pieces. From brushing up on her Italian to investigating Uncle Louie’s somewhat mysterious past, Jess soon discovers she needs less of her family’s assistance than she or they ever believed. Trigiani risks gilding the lily here, but by placing Jess’ love affair with Angelo alongside her love affair with her own future, she maintains a balance that will leave readers as satisfied as an Italian Sunday dinner would.
A fairy tale stuffed with a meaningful moral, this is a funny and heartwarming novel.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593183359
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
A wistfully nostalgic look at endings, beginnings, and loving the people who will always have your back.
Exes pretend they’re still together for the sake of their friends on their annual summer vacation.
Wyn Connor and Harriet Kilpatrick were the perfect couple—until Wyn dumped Harriet for reasons she still doesn’t fully understand. They’ve been part of the same boisterous friend group since college, and they know that their breakup will devastate the others and make things more than a little awkward. So they keep it a secret from their friends and families—in fact, Harriet barely even admits it to herself, focusing instead on her grueling hours as a surgical resident. She’s ready for a vacation at her happy place—the Maine cottage she and her friends visit every summer. But (surprise!) Wyn is there too, and he and Harriet have to share a (very romantic) room and a bed. Telling the truth about their breakup is out of the question, because the cottage is up for sale, and this is the group’s last hurrah. Determined to make sure everyone has the perfect last trip, Harriet and Wyn resolve to fake their relationship for the week. The problem with this plan, of course, is that Harriet still has major feelings for Wyn—feelings that only get stronger as they pretend to be blissfully in love. As always, Henry’s dialogue is sparkling and the banter between characters is snappy and hilarious. Wyn and Harriet’s relationship, shown both in the past and the present, feels achingly real. Their breakup, as well as their complicated relationships with their own families, adds a twinge of melancholy, as do the relatable growing pains of a group of friends whose lives are taking them in different directions.
A wistfully nostalgic look at endings, beginnings, and loving the people who will always have your back.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780593441275
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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