A sometimes-thrilling crime tale hampered somewhat by excessive detail.
A man returns to a cold case after 25 years to pursue justice in Minyard’s debut thriller.
After serving as an Army Ranger in the Vietnam War, Rob Anderson returned home in 1970 to become a Criminal Investigations Division agent, working undercover in drug enforcement. In 1979, he’s transferred to a task force in Rock Island, Illinois, to take down rampant drug smuggling in the Midwest. Their main targets are notorious dealers Gary Harker and Cody James. As soon as Rob arrives, he’s quick to remove Harker and James’ competitors to ensure their business goes up and the DEA has a bigger bust at an upcoming New Year’s Eve Party. Assisting Rob are Joey Hill, an informant who loves to party first and get the job done second, and Bobby Spragg, an agent of the Illinois Bureau of Investigation and someone who’ll prove a good friend in years to come. Harker and James meet with infamous criminal Rudolfo Flores for a deal that could make them big-time drug lords—and they don’t attend the party and thus avoid the bust. Years pass, and Rob eventually retires to investigate retail crime—and then, one day, out of the blue, Bobby calls him to say they’ve had a break in the Harker and James case. Over the course of this novel, Minyard delivers a story that will make the world of criminal justice and undercover work understandable to laypeople. However, the author slows the action with multiple instances of lengthy, granular exposition: “Using only three percent of the DEA’s enforcement staff and one point three percent of its expenditures for information and evidence, CENTAC arrested 2,116 traffickers.” Readers will wish for more of Minyard’s suspenseful action scenes, which elevate the characters and plot. Rob and Bobby are both sympathetic, and their friendship at the center of the story keeps the narrative engaging.
A sometimes-thrilling crime tale hampered somewhat by excessive detail.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 979-8792469969
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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