A crisp and clever marriage of music and mystery.
Ten dark tales inspired by a classic heavy metal album.
AC/DC’s Back in Black (1980) is the jumping-off point for this surprisingly diverse collection. While the stories—whose titles match the 10 tracks on the album—are all rooted in mystery and suspense, they range over various subgenres, from the tale of an urban serial killer to a revisiting of World War I carnage to the familiar face-off between a hardboiled gumshoe and a mysterious blond. Highlights include Dave Bruns’ “Givin the Dog a Bone,” which features loner Carl Boyd, raised in isolation on a farm, and the faithful mutt who latches onto him, as well as some Mexican desperados; Reed Farrel Coleman’s “Shoot To Thrill: A Tale From Gun Church,” a gritty account about an unhealthy and surprisingly sensual obsession with the most intimate details of weapons and heavy metal; and Tori Eldridge’s “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution,” in which Dr. Candace Stone, the jaded host of a call-in radio advice program, snaps to when she’s taunted by a shooter. The marquee entry is Andrew Child’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” a brisk and stylish espionage yarn featuring the KGB, a crucial briefcase, and happy-go-lucky superspy Jack Reacher, protagonist of the long-running series. Heather Graham, Sandra Balzo, Rick Bleiweiss, Charles Todd, Ward Larsen, and editor Bruns round out the roster of contributors. The quality is understandably uneven but mostly above average. And the terrific idea behind the collection kindles the hope that every reader will someday be gifted with an anthology based on their favorite album.
A crisp and clever marriage of music and mystery.Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9798200924639
Page Count: 225
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.
It takes a quirky sleuth to solve a baffling closed-door murder.
The author himself or, more accurately, some version of him, walks the reader through a “gruesome murder” that occurred in a rural farming village. At the center of the crime is the wealthy Ichiyanagi family, including the widow Itoko and her five children. The “heinous crime” occurs in the evening after the festive wedding of eldest son Kenzo to schoolteacher Katsuko. Yokomizo, part narrator and part raconteur, liberally shares digressions such as the fact that his favorite British author is A.A. Milne, who wrote The Red House Mystery as well as the books about Winnie-the-Pooh. Written in 1946 but set in 1937 before the devastation of World War II, this is the first novel featuring Kosuke Kindaichi, the legendary detective who appeared in more than 70 stories by Yokomizo. If Yokomizo is the Japanese Agatha Christie, Kindaichi may seem the Japanese Hercule Poirot—although actually, given his unkempt hair and apparently distracted manner, he’s more a cross between Poirot and Columbo. Shrewdly, his entrance is delayed until midway through the novel, after the police have stalled and both the family and the reader are anxious for a solution. The narrator’s garrulous charm, in a mystery long on logistics and forensic clues but short on detailed character portraits or extended interactions, is a key to the novel’s success, leavening the more intricate pieces of the puzzle. Armchair detectives will welcome the helpful character list that precedes the story.
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781805336549
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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