by Dominic Martell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 6, 2020
A strong hero hasn’t lost his mojo in this welcome return of a thriller series.
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In this fourth installment of a thriller series, a former terrorist becomes compelled by shadowy figures to emerge from anonymity to facilitate the “heist of the century.”
After renouncing his past (but still haunted by the deaths in which he played a part), ex-terrorist Pascual Rose has made a concerted effort to live off the grid. But a six-word text message (“Come join us on the terrace”) shatters the nondescript life he lives in Barcelona as a freelance translator with his wife, a popular singer, and son. Two mysterious operatives make him an offer he cannot refuse. He is to lead the efforts in a clandestine operation “for the benefit of parties you may or may not sympathize with, but who pose no direct threat to anything or anyone you hold dear.” For his role in setting up holding companies in strategic locations around the world, he will be paid a million euros. Ironically, Rose’s anonymity is what makes him so valuable: “Pascual Rose disappeared before everything was put on the computer,” he is told. “That means we have a blank slate for creating a digital record of his activity for the last twenty or more years, starting with the irrefutable fact of his existence.” But despite implied threats to his family, Rose cannot just take their money and do the job. He uses his long dormant skills to try to stay one step ahead of his minders. It has been almost two decades since the last Rose thriller. It is not necessary to have read Martell’s previous three books to be swept up in this complex and cunning tale. The dialogue is not just recycled action clichés. When told that he will be traveling first class and will need to expand his wardrobe, Rose remarks, “It’s a costume drama, is it?” “It is. And you’ve got the lead role,” he is told. Less tech-savvy readers will not find the machinations of the operation too daunting. In Rose, they will discover an empathetic hero caught in a precarious struggle to do the right thing and make peace with his past.
A strong hero hasn’t lost his mojo in this welcome return of a thriller series.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-951938-05-5
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Dunn Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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New York Times Bestseller
by Tana French ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
An absorbing crime yarn.
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New York Times Bestseller
A divorced American detective tries to blend into rural Ireland in this sequel to The Searcher (2020).
In fictional Ardnakelty, on Ireland’s west coast, lives retired American cop Cal Hooper, who busies himself repairing furniture with 15-year-old Theresa “Trey” Reddy and fervently wishes to be boring. Then into town pops Trey’s long-gone, good-for-nothing dad, Johnny, all smiles and charm. Much to her distaste, he says he wants to reclaim his fatherly role. In fact, he’s on the run from a criminal for a debt he can’t repay, and he has a cockamamie scheme to persuade local townsfolk that there might be gold in the nearby mountain with a vein that might run through some of their properties. (What, no leprechauns?) “It’s not sheep shite you’ll be smelling in a few months’ time, man,” he tells a farmer. “It’s champagne and caviar.” Some people have fun fantasizing about sudden riches, but they know better. Johnny’s pursuer, Cillian Rushborough, comes to town, and Johnny tries to convince him he could get rich by purchasing people’s land. Alas, someone bashes Rushborough’s brains in, and now there’s a murder mystery. The plot is a bit of a stretch, but the characters and their relationships work well. Trey detests Johnny for not being in her life, and now that he’s back, she neither wants nor needs him. She gets on much better with Cal. Still, she’s a testy teenager when she thinks someone is not treating her like an adult. Cal is aware of this, and he’s careful how he talks to her. Johnny, not so much: “I swear to fuck, women are only put on this earth to wreck our fuckin’ heads,” he whines about Trey’s mother, briefly forgetting he’s talking to Trey. The book abounds in local color and lively dialogue.
An absorbing crime yarn.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593493434
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
by C.J. Box ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 27, 2024
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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