A textured, riveting portrait of a good man caught in a horrifying situation.
In this thriller, a pastor hoping to enjoy his retirement years instead walks into hell on Earth.
Pastor James Atterley decides to follow St. Paul’s lead and minister to seafarers. His plan is to apply to become a Protestant chaplain on a cruise line, and then he and his wife, Candace, will head to sea (“My wife and I believed that we might be of some small, divine use on the oceans, and that we might also be able to see the world beyond Glenville, South Carolina, our home”). As the months pass, their hopes fade. Then the call comes from Majestic Waves Cruises, and they jump at the offer despite his misgivings about some strange restrictions. His doubts grow after their ship, the Grand Rapina, launches. James pieces together that the ship is picking up Latin America’s poor, who are exchanging their blood in hopes of a better life in the United States. But instead, the ship’s physician, Dr. Jenny Elihu, is developing a vaccine from their blood that will keep the poor from reproducing in the participating countries. Many of these lab rats don’t even survive the extraction process. Throughout the ordeal, James continues ministering to those who remain. He and Candace even foster his young translator, Emmie. Things go from bad to worse on the Grand Rapina as the workers mutiny against the officers; pirates attack; and, finally, the refugees rise up against their captors. James and Candace get embroiled in the chaos, hoping to somehow escape from captivity on their dream cruise. Miles has created a very sympathetic protagonist in James. Despite his misgivings, the pastor continues with the cruise in hopes of giving Candace the memorable adventure that they had fantasized about throughout his years of service. Then, after determining that they are trapped in a nightmare, he continues to assist his fellow prisoners in an attempt to improve their miserable lives. Candace even gets to enjoy becoming a mother, which she had always dreamed about, if only under the worst of circumstances. The author has populated her book with an extremely vile group of villains involved in this hideous experiment. Miles’ deliberately paced, gripping narrative enables readers to really encounter this gruesome voyage of the damned.
A textured, riveting portrait of a good man caught in a horrifying situation.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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