Another winner from a top-tier thriller writer.
A San Francisco silver spoon heir trying to do good becomes entangled in a serial murder case in Hurwitz’s (The Survivor, 2012, etc.) latest thriller.
Daniel Brasher, last heir to a family fortune that can be traced back to the Union Pacific’s golden spike, left the private investment business to become a counselor for violent offenders. The only child of widowed Evelyn Brasher, a community mover and shaker more powerful and feared than appreciated and respected, Brasher strayed further by marrying Cristina, a Hispanic community organizer. Money, an Audi, a gentrified three-story in Pacific Heights mean the couple lives well while doing good, the only pothole on the road to happily-ever-after being Cristina’s cancer. Then Brasher discovers an anonymous murder threat in his work mailbox. The threat, however, is directed at another person. Soon, other murder threats, and bodies, accumulate. Every corpse is left with "knife slits leaking blood below either eye." The Tearmaker’s notes always demand that victims "admit what you’ve done." Hurwitz is brilliant with characterization. Evelyn and Cristina are spark-striking opposites. Leo Rizk, shadowy, silent hired bodyguard, has a dark history revealed in strobe flashes. Theresa Dooley, hard-charging young African-American inspector, leads the investigation. And Martin, A-Dre, Big Mac, Martin, Lil and Xochitl, the sextet that makes up Brasher’s counsel group of violent offenders, are broken and brave but worthy suspects all. Hurwitz’s writing is more lyrical than noir—one chapter delineates San Francisco perfectly—with occasional literary flashes—"watched the sunbeams' relentless creep along the floorboards, ushering in the threats of a new day)." Hurwitz is no slouch at plotting either, dragging Brasher from one murder scene to another, either consulting with Dooley or giving in to his own curiosity—or guilt. Every suspect seems legitimate, but then the narrative makes a hard U-turn and aims The Tearmaker at Brasher and his wife only to stumble beyond a satisfying conclusion and tack on the trite tying up of one minor narrative thread.
Another winner from a top-tier thriller writer.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-312-62552-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
Slaughter (Cop Town, 2014, etc.) is so uncompromising in following her blood trails to the darkest places imaginable that...
Twenty-four years after a traumatic disappearance tore a Georgia family apart, Slaughter’s scorching stand-alone picks them up and shreds them all over again.
The Carrolls have never been the same since 19-year-old Julia vanished. After years of fruitlessly pestering the police, her veterinarian father, Sam, killed himself; her librarian mother, Helen, still keeps the girl's bedroom untouched, just in case. Julia’s sisters have been equally scarred. Lydia Delgado has sold herself for drugs countless times, though she’s been clean for years now; Claire Scott has just been paroled after knee-capping her tennis partner for a thoughtless remark. The evening that Claire’s ankle bracelet comes off, her architect husband, Paul, is callously murdered before her eyes and, without a moment's letup, she stumbles on a mountainous cache of snuff porn. Paul’s business partner, Adam Quinn, demands information from Claire and threatens her with dire consequences if she doesn’t deliver. The Dunwoody police prove as ineffectual as ever. FBI agent Fred Nolan is more suavely menacing than helpful. So Lydia and Claire, who’ve grown so far apart that they’re virtual strangers, are unwillingly thrown back on each other for help. Once she’s plunged you into this maelstrom, Slaughter shreds your own nerves along with those of the sisters, not simply by a parade of gruesome revelations—though she supplies them in abundance—but by peeling back layer after layer from beloved family members Claire and Lydia thought they knew. The results are harrowing.
Slaughter (Cop Town, 2014, etc.) is so uncompromising in following her blood trails to the darkest places imaginable that she makes most of her high-wire competition look pallid, formulaic, or just plain fake.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-242905-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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