A razor-sharp sequel exceeding the previous installment’s high expectations.
Three months after helping the FBI bring down the Berryville Butcher in None Shall Sleep (2020), college students Emma Lewis and Travis Bell reunite on a new case with a chilling connection to Emma’s past.
Emma was the sole survivor of serial killer Daniel Huxton, who died three years ago in 1979. Her insights from that experience proved invaluable to the FBI’s fledgling Behavioral Science department in their hunt for the Butcher. Now, the department is investigating murders in Pittsburgh that bear a resemblance to Huxton’s M.O. Despite her distrust of the bureau, Emma figures that consulting on this case in hopes of saving other girls is preferable to chafing in protective custody until the copycat is caught. Travis is now in part-time training at Quantico, and there’s another familiar face there—that of Kristin Gutmunsson, whose sociopathic twin, Simon, played a critical role in the Butcher case. Enigmatic Kristin volunteers her own insights—plus Simon’s cooperation—in hopes of reducing her brother’s death sentence to life in prison. The rich, engaging narrative jumps among the three young people, employing taut, restrained language laced with a pervasive feeling of dread as the stakes escalate. While the fast pace and morbidly fascinating subject keep the pages turning, the book’s thoughtful exploration of intense trauma, PTSD, and therapy-informed treatment centers survivors and keeps the story grounded. Emma and Kristin are White; Travis is Mexican American.
A razor-sharp sequel exceeding the previous installment’s high expectations. (author’s note) (Thriller. 13-18)Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9780316487719
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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