Brunetti, who airily tells his wife Paola, “I don’t do ethical,” spends less time than usual (Drawing Conclusions, 2011,...
The death of an inoffensive veterinarian takes Commissario Guido Brunetti once more into the heart of the human beast.
Even after the victim is identified—and it’s a good long time before he is—the name of Dottor Andrea Nava’s killer seems less mysterious than the question of why someone, anyone, would have stabbed him in the back three times and dumped his body into a Venetian canal. Although he’s estranged from his wife, Anna Doni, she faints from either grief or guilt when Brunetti and his friend, Inspector Lorenzo Vianello, break the news to her. Clara Baroni, his assistant at the Clinica Amico Mio veterinary practice, can shed no light on his death. And although his sad little dalliance with Giulia Borelli, Director Alessandro Papetti’s assistant at the slaughterhouse where he moonlighted part time, may have threatened his marriage, it hardly seems a weighty enough motive for murder. It’s not until after a tour of the slaughterhouse brings Brunetti and Vianello up against the horrid realities behind the meat they placidly consume every day that Brunetti realizes that carcasses aren’t the most bestial presences lurking there.
Brunetti, who airily tells his wife Paola, “I don’t do ethical,” spends less time than usual (Drawing Conclusions, 2011, etc.) butting heads with his nemesis, Vice-Questore Giuseppe Patta. But his conspiratorial dealings with his omni-competent assistant Signora Elettra and his suave attempts at acting dumb while he’s questioning his few suspects are equally rewarding.Pub Date: April 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2023-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2012
A good guy outsmarts a venomous viper, outguns a gazillion villains—and falls in love with a nice gal. Continuing at loose ends after being separated from the Army (the peace dividend, you know), former MP Major Jack Reacher (Die Trying, 1998, etc.) is down in Key West rather enjoying irresponsibility—until a private investigator shows up looking for him. The following day the p.i. turns up dead, fingertips sliced off for the purpose of preserving his incognito. Something nefarious is going on here, Reacher concludes, stirred by a burst of the old action-hero adrenaline. All he knows for sure, however, is that the detective was hired by a Ms. Jacob. Pause for a deductive leap or two, then on to New York to track down the mysterious Ms. Jacob. But what’s in a name? It soon develops that Ms. J isn’t mysterious at all. In fact, she’s an old friend. Before she was married, the Ms. J., now divorced, was a J already—Jodie Garber, daughter of General Garber, Reacher’s erstwhile commanding officer and mentor. Reacher last saw her when she was 15 and in the throes of a violent crush on him. Now she’s 30, and as gorgeous as you might have guessed. Among other things, she needs Reacher to finish a task begun by her recently deceased father. Reacher accepts the mission, of course, and is immediately in confrontation with a sadistic demon, obligatorily brilliant, whose intricate scam has roots in Vietnam and whose pleasure in killing and maiming is unconfined. But love (for Jodie) has not blunted Reacher’s martial capabilities, and from a climactic one-on-one with Hook (the sadistic demon) Hobie, he emerges scathed but triumphant. Unabashedly mindless but fun: Reacher swashbuckles with the best of them.
Pub Date: July 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-14467-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
A delightful debut spiced with a tempestuous romance and certain to appeal to fans of genealogical research and history.
A Texas genealogist’s search for the truth of an old murder precipitates a present-day killing.
Austin-based Lucy Lancaster is doing research for Texas legend Gus Halloran, who’s convinced that his great-great grandfather Seth was murdered despite the 1849 newspaper stories that say he was trampled by a horse. The sole witness was photographer Jeb Inscore, and Lucy hits the jackpot when she visits his great-granddaughter Betty-Anne Inscore-Cooper, whose boxes of daguerreotypes include one that depicts Seth lying dead in a bloodstained shirt. Inscore’s journals reveal that someone with the initials C.A. paid to have Seth murdered; the multiple hoof marks on his body were intended to hide a knife wound. The most likely candidates are Cantwell Ayers and Caleb Applewhite, whose descendant is running for the Senate against Halloran’s son. Soon after a tipsy Lucy tells reporters at a news conference how she found the evidence of the old murder, she’s visited by FBI Special Agent Ben Turner, who has a lot of annoying questions about her work for Halloran and her amateur investigation, as boxes of daguerreotypes have been stolen from Betty-Anne. Fortunately, Lucy’s turned over the other daguerreotypes and journals to her friend Winnie Dell, the curator for a history center at the University of Texas at Austin. Unfortunately, Winnie is murdered and the daguerreotype of Seth stolen. Lucy’s officemates, Serena and Josephine, are constantly trying to get their gal pal back in the dating game after a bad breakup. They consider Ben a good bet even though the pair constantly wrangle over Lucy’s sleuthing. In the end, Lucy’s hot-and-cold relationship with Ben helps to turn up more clues about the old murder that’s caused her friend’s death.
A delightful debut spiced with a tempestuous romance and certain to appeal to fans of genealogical research and history.Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-18903-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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