Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the latest realignments among criminal conspirators so uniformly energetic and amoral that long...
Even though it’s been six years since Burke published The Big O (2008), this manic sequel seems to begin five minutes after its predecessor’s fade-out.
OK, listen up. Ex–cosmetic surgeon Frank Dolan’s plan to have his wife, Madge, kidnapped—a plan facilitated by obligingly feral criminal fixer Terry Swipes—has gone belly up. Madge’s abduction by her best friend, Karen King, has morphed into a plan to fleece $200,000 from Karen’s ex-husband, Rossi Callaghan, who’s partnered with Sleeps, the aptly nicknamed narcoleptic getaway driver. This new, improved plan has claimed two casualties, neither of them Madge. Karen’s pet wolf, Anna, has torn off Rossi’s ear, and Madge has shot Ray Brogan, Karen’s companion in crime, in the arm. And this is all before Page 1. Since Karen can hardly fly Anna to their rendezvous with Madge in the Greek islands, Ray, despite his broken arm, volunteers to drive her there over the Alps. And since a trip like that involves some capital expenses, they decide to amortize the costs by hauling a sealed package for Amsterdam coke dealer Johnny Priest. Travel agent Melody Shine, who’s just gotten a $12,000 grant for a screenplay she has no intention of writing, helps make some of the travel arrangements and then decides to follow her clients to the islands. And suspended Detective Stephanie Doyle, getting wind of the exodus, feels this would be just the time to reconnect with Niko, the dicey Greek cop who served as her interpreter last time around. Burke’s plot, if that’s what you want to call it, sucks every character who walks by into a vortex of schemes, coincidences, double crosses, shifting alliances, and talk talk talk.
Don’t blink, or you’ll miss the latest realignments among criminal conspirators so uniformly energetic and amoral that long before this installment is over, it’s hard to tell them apart.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8375-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A compulsively readable account of a little-known yet extraordinary historical figure—Lawhon’s best book to date.
A historical novel explores the intersection of love and war in the life of Australian-born World War II heroine Nancy Grace Augusta Wake.
Lawhon’s (I Was Anastasia, 2018, etc.) carefully researched, lively historical novels tend to be founded on a strategic chronological gambit, whether it’s the suspenseful countdown to the landing of the Hindenberg or the tale of a Romanov princess told backward and forward at once. In her fourth novel, she splits the story of the amazing Nancy Wake, woman of many aliases, into two interwoven strands, both told in first-person present. One begins on Feb. 29th, 1944, when Wake, code-named Hélène by the British Special Operations Executive, parachutes into Vichy-controlled France to aid the troops of the Resistance, working with comrades “Hubert” and “Denden”—two of many vividly drawn supporting characters. “I wake just before dawn with a full bladder and the uncomfortable realization that I am surrounded on all sides by two hundred sex-starved Frenchmen,” she says. The second strand starts eight years earlier in Paris, where Wake is launching a career as a freelance journalist, covering early stories of the Nazi rise and learning to drink with the hardcore journos, her purse-pooch Picon in her lap. Though she claims the dog “will be the great love of [her] life,” she is about to meet the hunky Marseille-based industrialist Henri Fiocca, whose dashing courtship involves French 75 cocktails, unexpected appearances, and a drawn-out seduction. As always when going into battle, even the ones with guns and grenades, Nancy says “I wear my favorite armor…red lipstick.” Both strands offer plenty of fireworks and heroism as they converge to explain all. The author begs forgiveness in an informative afterword for all the drinking and swearing. Hey! No apologies necessary!
A compulsively readable account of a little-known yet extraordinary historical figure—Lawhon’s best book to date.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-385-54468-9
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
The secrets of the past refuse to keep quiet in this disquieting, taut thriller.
Thirty years ago, Seattle Police Capt. Edward Shank put down a serial killer dubbed the Butcher. Edward’s bullet ended Rufus Wedge’s sorry life. But did the killings end?
Hillier’s (Freak, 2012, etc.) third thriller fairly shudders with tension. Edward is ready to retire to an assisted living facility and give his grandson, Matt, the family home, a beloved Victorian in a posh neighborhood. An up-and-coming chef, Matt has parlayed his successful food-truck business into Adobo, the hottest restaurant in town, and the reality show networks are calling. The only trouble is that his girlfriend, Samantha, can’t understand why Matt hasn’t invited her to move in, too. After all, they’ve been together for three years. Pressuring Matt, though, isn’t getting her anywhere, and even their friend—well, really Sam’s friend—Jason is a little mystified. Certainly, Matt’s history of anger management trouble gives Jason pause. While Matt renovates the house and works late, Sam turns back to researching her latest true-crime book. This time, she has a personal investment. She’s convinced that her mother was killed by the notorious Butcher. Bored at the retirement home, Edward has become an invaluable sounding board. Like the Butcher’s other victims, Sam’s mother was raped, strangled and left in a shallow grave. Unfortunately for Sam’s theory, her mother was killed two years after Rufus Wedge’s death. Meanwhile, Matt’s contractor has unearthed a crate filled with gruesome artifacts. As Matt investigates the crate’s contents and Sam questions a mysterious informant, their romance unravels and the body count begins to rise. Hillier sends her reader into a labyrinth of creepy twists and grotesque turns. There’s no escape from the brutal truths exposed.
The secrets of the past refuse to keep quiet in this disquieting, taut thriller.Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-3421-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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