Fans coast to coast can take pleasure in seeing Copperman’s quirky hero remain his rational, literal self, even out in...
Professional fact-finder Samuel Hoenig (The Question of the Felonious Friend, 2016, etc.) accepts a query from a client he can hardly refuse: his mother.
Though he resists the notion that people on the autism spectrum don’t develop the same attachments as their neurotypical peers, Samuel nevertheless has very little interest in discovering the whereabouts of his own father. Not, Samuel insists, because he lacks feelings, but because he lacks information. Reuben Hoenig left the family home 27 years ago, and since then, there’s been hardly a word about his career in the music business, his health, or even his whereabouts. This last had become of great concern to Vivian Hoenig, since she’s just received a letter from Reuben, the first in many years, suggesting that he may never be able to write to her again. Once she shapes her concern into a question—“Where is your father living now?”—it becomes a matter of professional urgency for Samuel to find Reuben. As proprietor of Questions Answered, his job is precisely and literally to answer questions. And Samuel is nothing if not precise and literal. He and his associate, Ms. Washburn, undertake a computer search and find that Reuben once worked for the Rayborn Corporation in Seattle. When he left Rayborn, his salary line seemed to be transferred to a George Kaplan of Mendoza Communications, in Los Angeles. But the intricate connections between Rayborn, Mendoza, and an outfit called Kaplan Enterprises in the neighborhood of Reseda simply can’t be traced online. Samuel, who’s never been more than a few hours from Piscataway, is going to have to get on a plane and travel to the San Fernando Valley, where only the patience and guidance of Ms. Washburn will stand between him and the terrors of hotel bathrooms, restaurant meals, and traffic on the 101. Even in his native New Jersey, Samuel is often a stranger in a strange land. But transporting him across the country gives Copperman, aka Cohen, the opportunity to open up his inner life and to explore his burgeoning relationship with his assistant.
Fans coast to coast can take pleasure in seeing Copperman’s quirky hero remain his rational, literal self, even out in fabulous La La Land.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7387-5079-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Midnight Ink/Llewellyn
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Hoover is one of the freshest voices in new-adult fiction, and her latest resonates with true emotion, unforgettable...
Sydney and Ridge make beautiful music together in a love triangle written by Hoover (Losing Hope, 2013, etc.), with a link to a digital soundtrack by American Idol contestant Griffin Peterson.
Hoover is a master at writing scenes from dual perspectives. While music student Sydney is watching her neighbor Ridge play guitar on his balcony across the courtyard, Ridge is watching Sydney’s boyfriend, Hunter, secretly make out with her best friend on her balcony. The two begin a songwriting partnership that grows into something more once Sydney dumps Hunter and decides to crash with Ridge and his two roommates while she gets back on her feet. She finds out after the fact that Ridge already has a long-distance girlfriend, Maggie—and that he's deaf. Ridge’s deafness doesn’t impede their relationship or their music. In fact, it creates opportunities for sexy nonverbal communication and witty text messages: Ridge tenderly washes off a message he wrote on Sydney’s hand in ink, and when Sydney adds a few too many e’s to the word “squee” in her text, Ridge replies, “If those letters really make up a sound, I am so, so glad I can’t hear it.” While they fight their mutual attraction, their hope that “maybe someday” they can be together playfully comes out in their music. Peterson’s eight original songs flesh out Sydney’s lyrics with a good mix of moody musical styles: “Living a Lie” has the drama of a Coldplay piano ballad, while the chorus of “Maybe Someday” marches to the rhythm of the Lumineers. But Ridge’s lingering feelings for Maggie cause heartache for all three of them. Independent Maggie never complains about Ridge’s friendship with Sydney, and it's hard to even want Ridge to leave Maggie when she reveals her devastating secret. But Ridge can’t hide his feelings for Sydney long—and they face their dilemma with refreshing emotional honesty.
Hoover is one of the freshest voices in new-adult fiction, and her latest resonates with true emotion, unforgettable characters and just the right amount of sexual tension.Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5316-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2014
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