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
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
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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