A well-constructed mystery with a knockout surprise ending.
Edward Cohen (Israel Catfish, 2013, etc.) joins forces with his wife, debut author Kathy Cohen, for a murder mystery that centers on a troubled father-son relationship.
This New Orleans–set whodunit opens with 27-year-old playboy attorney Kyle Cameron finding the lifeless, naked body of beautiful Laura Niles lying in her bed, her blood-soaked gown on the floor. She was an attorney at Cameron & Munger, the firm co-founded by Kyle’s father, Jake. After the initial setup, the narrative jumps back two months, revealing several potential suspects. For example, Jake was having affair with Laura; when Kyle found out, he seduced the young woman himself, hoping that she’d break up with Jake (thus sparing his mother, Nola, some pain). However, Laura refused him. It also turns out that Ginger Allred, a fiery attorney at the firm and one of Jake’s former lovers, despised Laura, who replaced her on the top floor. There are also other, less-than-reputable characters in the dead woman’s past. The tension between Kyle and Jake is palpable throughout; although they’re bound together by familial love, they don’t like each other much. Jake sees Kyle as undisciplined, impetuous, and a notorious womanizer, albeit a quick study with potential; Kyle sees his dad as someone he can never please and as the cause of Nola’s unhappiness and attempted suicide. Kyle, the narrator of this twisty tale, does indeed seem to be a slave to his sexual appetites. However, the authors also make him charmingly vulnerable and self-deprecating—an affable lead that readers will likely find themselves rooting for. When Kyle receives a major case from his father, for instance, he says: “ ‘Well, thanks.’ I wasn’t sure what I was thanking him for, my job or the case. I was equally undeserving of both.” However, the authors also make sure that Kyle’s mettle as an attorney shines through in the cases he handles—particularly when he has to defend his father. The novel offers well-drawn, larger-than-life secondary characters and clever, fast-paced dialogue, which makes for an engrossing read. There are also several steamy sex scenes, depicted from a decidedly male perspective.
A well-constructed mystery with a knockout surprise ending.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72323-207-7
Page Count: 326
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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