If you can accept the hook of Grace’s extraordinary powers, Ford strings the rest of the tale expertly between extended...
A beleaguered big-city cop works with and against an equally troubled young woman with the uncanny ability to help long-comatose patients return to life.
Given Grace Pressman’s miraculous powers, you’d think families of hopeless cases would be falling all over themselves to get her help. And a look at her history indicates that many of them have done exactly that. But in order to revive Joseph Reeves from the coma he’s been in for nearly a year, she has to fight off first the SWAT team surrounding his room with the help of his father, Paul, and then Paul’s ex-wife, Roberta, who’s so incensed by the resurrection that she goes tooth and nail for the spectral Grace, the Silver Angel who suffers from albinism. Grace’s path crosses that of DS Mickey Dolan, just back on the job after his wife very publicly deserted him for a female TV newscaster, when he’s assigned the job of recovering Maddie and Tessa Royster from their bipolar mother, Cassie, who’s spirited them away from her ex-husband, Edwin. It doesn’t take long for Mickey to decide that although he may be a powerful city councilman, Edwin Royster is also an abusive molester. So he has very mixed feelings when he realizes that Grace Pressman, whose mother, Eve, founded the Women’s Transitional Center, probably knows where the little Royster girls are. The revelations that follow have a decisive force that makes it clear why Ford didn’t call on one of his series regulars, Leo Waterman or Frank Corso (Nameless Night, 2008, etc.), for this particular job.
If you can accept the hook of Grace’s extraordinary powers, Ford strings the rest of the tale expertly between extended chases and moments of unexpected compassion the characters show each other and eventually themselves.Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4778-2217-3
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that...
Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett (Free Fire, 2007, etc.), once again at the governor’s behest, stalks the wraithlike figure who’s targeting elk hunters for death.
Frank Urman was taken down by a single rifle shot, field-dressed, beheaded and hung upside-down to bleed out. (You won’t believe where his head eventually turns up.) The poker chip found near his body confirms that he’s the third victim of the Wolverine, a killer whose animus against hunters is evidently being whipped up by anti-hunting activist Klamath Moore. The potential effects on the state’s hunting revenues are so calamitous that Governor Spencer Rulon pulls out all the stops, and Pickett is forced to work directly with Wyoming Game and Fish Director Randy Pope, the boss who fired him from his regular job in Saddlestring District. Three more victims will die in rapid succession before Joe is given a more congenial colleague: Nate Romanowski, the outlaw falconer who pledged to protect Joe’s family before he was taken into federal custody. As usual in this acclaimed series, the mystery is slight and its solution eminently guessable long before it’s confirmed by testimony from an unlikely source. But the people and scenes and enduring conflicts that lead up to that solution will stick with you for a long time.
More of a western than a mystery, like most of Joe’s adventures, and all the better for the open physical clashes that periodically release the tension between the scheming adversaries.Pub Date: May 20, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-15488-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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