by Eric Dezenhall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 2021
An easy-reading crime novel about real and manufactured scandals.
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A reporter with a chip on his shoulder plots to bring down a powerful media predator in Dezenhall’s latest novel.
Investigative reporter Sanford “Fuse” Petty is a hopeless Luddite, eschewing not only iPhones and social media, but even elevators and ATMs. He’s a man behind the times, and, as his nickname implies, he’s got a bit of a temper. Forced to take a leave of absence pending a disciplinary investigation at the paper where he’s worked for decades, Fuse feels embittered and adrift. His old friend Kurt Rossiter comes to him with a problem: Kurt’s daughter, Samantha, has been sexually assaulted by social media star Pacho Craig. Best known for his viral “gotcha” videos, Craig is everything wrong with the new media landscape, where journalists pursue clicks over truth. Rather than go public—Kurt only recently avoided his own #MeToo–style scandal—Fuse recommends an unorthodox solution to get justice. “Takedowns are part of what journalists do,” he explains. “We look at a bad guy’s weakness—a high-profile person’s, that is….People aren’t often punished how we want them to be—or when. We need to find out what he values and find a way to take it from him.” Using his connections in every seedy corner of Washington, D.C., from the drug dealers to the politicians, Fuse sets about getting revenge on Pacho. But is he doing it for Samantha or for himself? As in Dezenhall’s last novel, Glass Jaw (2014), the prose is as caustic and observant as the crusading narrator. The tone is lighter than the premise might suggest, but Dezenhall’s characters are complex, and his treatment of timely issues is more nuanced than one might expect. It’s fun, fast-paced, and full of memorable scoundrels.
An easy-reading crime novel about real and manufactured scandals.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62-634749-6
Page Count: 343
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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by Ali Hazelwood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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