Pinpoint plotting and sure sense of place make this tale a winner.
A forensic archaeologist returns home from Ireland in search of evidence that her brother-in-law was responsible for her sister’s murder, long deemed unsolvable by local police.
Cormac Maguire is in Donegal, reuniting with the father who abandoned him as a child to chase wild dreams in South America. But his heart is in Minnesota with his lover Nora Gavin (Lake of Sorrows, 2004, etc.), who spent the last two years with him in Dublin unearthing the mysteries of bodies found preserved in peat. Now a more pressing mystery brings her home. Her sister Tríona was murdered three years ago. Nora is sure that Tríona’s slick, handsome husband, Peter Hallett, bashed her face in and stuffed her body in the trunk of her car. But no one, not even Nora’s parents, will believe her—except Frank Cordova, the brooding police detective Nora shared more than her suspicions with before Cormac came on the scene. As Cormac chases ghosts—like Mary Heaney, thought by Glencolumbkille folk a selkie, a half-seal, half-human who disappeared from her family to return to the sea—Nora finds a real body. Police discover Natalie Russo, a sculler at the Twin Cities Rowing Club, in a shallow grave at Hidden Falls Park. Seeds in Natalie’s hair, including those from a rare plant called false mermaid, are similar to those found in Triona’s. If only Nora and Frank can make the connection before Peter’s upcoming second marriage puts his new wife Amanda and his daughter Elizabeth in mortal danger.
Pinpoint plotting and sure sense of place make this tale a winner.Pub Date: March 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4165-6376-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
Light on surprises and character development, this tepid thriller will have most astute readers correctly guessing the...
An accident forces a man to return to his small Iowa hometown and confront violent secrets from his past, ones he’s kept hidden from his wife.
Sarah Quinlan thought she knew everything about her husband, Jack: an accident killed his parents when he was 15 so he left Penny Gate, Iowa, and has only been back once. But when the couple gets news that Jack’s beloved aunt Julia, who raised Jack and his younger sister, Amy, after their parents’ deaths, is gravely injured in a fall, the prodigal son returns. Gudenkauf (Little Mercies, 2014, etc.) makes it clear from the start that nothing should be taken at face value, not Jack’s story about his parents (his mother was actually bludgeoned to death, and his father, now MIA, was the prime suspect) or the seemingly idyllic small-town atmosphere. This, however, does little to heighten the suspense as advice columnist Sarah takes on the role of amateur detective in sniffing out Quinlan family secrets past and present. Through her we meet Jack’s terse cousin Dean and his too-perfect wife, Celia, along with Julia’s husband, Hal, who became like a father to Jack in the wake of his own family tragedy, and Amy, who couldn’t be more stereotypically “troubled.” Jack and Amy’s tragic past, which becomes the central mystery of the plot once Sarah figures out that her husband has been lying to her for two decades, is tied to Julia’s not-so-accidental fall, but only for the purposes of a neatly sewn-up plot.
Light on surprises and character development, this tepid thriller will have most astute readers correctly guessing the ending halfway through.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1865-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Fast-paced, imaginative fun. May Kurt and crew survive, as there’s a good series to continue.
The latest maritime thriller in the NUMA series starring Kurt Austin (The Rising Sea, 2018, etc.)
In 1968, the French submarine Minerve sinks without a trace in the Mediterranean. In the present day, an oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing and badly injuring many workers. Enter Kurt Austin, head of Special Projects at the National Underwater Marine Agency. Kurt leads a team that assists in marine emergencies, so they respond to the Mayday call and quickly find a stream of underwater flame—escaping gas is burning in the water, down “as far as the eye could see.” It’s a fire that needs no oxygen, a phenomenon Kurt’s team has never seen. NUMA calls the disaster clear-cut sabotage, and Kurt’s assignment is to find the guilty party. Said party is Tessa Franco, CEO of Novum Industria, who is busily sabotaging oil production around the world. She wants to promote her new fuel cell to replace “this mad reliance on fossil fuels” and become even more stinking rich than she already is. She has “infected half the world’s major oil fields” by pumping oil-eating bacteria into them, rendering them useless. “She is the oil crisis,” Kurt tells the president. Kurt's and Tessa’s teams race to locate the Minerve, which may have critical genetic research Israel commissioned half a century ago. There are great action scenes underwater and on the surface, where Tessa’s seaplane, the Monarch, is almost as big as a 747. Rotten to the core, Tessa wants her lackeys to “get rid of Austin once and for all.” Her odds look mighty good considering the firepower she brings to bear.
Fast-paced, imaginative fun. May Kurt and crew survive, as there’s a good series to continue.Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-1902-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
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