A thriller novel made more compelling by the real emotion at its center.
In Morris’ novel, a discovery of antique artifacts reveals a history of family secrets and ignites a perilous odyssey involving a drug lord and an ominous supernatural threat.
A fear-struck old woman calls a stash of old relics “cursed” when her orphaned adult granddaughter, Sophia Martinez,discovers them in the walls of their Roatan home; they include a dusty leather book etched in blood and an obsidian knife. Unfazed by this warning, Sophia embarks on a mission to uncover their secrets and hopefully learn more about the history of her own family, which has faced trials due to reputedly cursed pirate treasure. Soon, she unwittingly stumbles into the nefarious schemes of dealers in illegal artifacts and a cartel kingpin-turned-religious zealot named Hun Came. Morris, the author of Swarm(2020), brings an intricate and thrilling plot to life in a sophomore effort that’s well cast with an array of dynamic characters. A standout is dogged investigative journalist, Lucia Vasquez, whose story runs alongside Sophia’s and helps to propel the novel forward; her reporting provides explanations that help guide the reader. There’s a sense of thematic harmony as Sophia struggles to piece together the secrets of her family’s past, and Lucia works to expose the cartel that orphaned her and her brother. The two women bring welcome humanity to this page-turner, which seamlessly blends elements of geopolitical conspiracy with eerie and atmospheric horror. As each chapter counts down to the Mayan chaa, an event that could mean untold destruction, Lucia and Sophia’s stories begin to converge, gradually revealing the truth behind the old leather book and the family curse. Overall, Morris’ novel is a taut adventure, but, as it dives deeper into Sophia's story, it offers a deeply human tragedy.
A thriller novel made more compelling by the real emotion at its center.Pub Date: May 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73572-863-6
Page Count: 426
Publisher: Guy Morris Books
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.
The ne’er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren’t exactly the upstanding citizens they appear.
The first 35 years in the life of Thomas “TJ” Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who’s been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie’s then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier—until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John’s way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can’t trust anything his brother has said since he’s fallen off the wagon. TJ, who’s maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you’ll have a much better time than TJ.
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780525539704
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.
Dexter meets Killing Eve in Wallace’s dark comic thriller debut.
While accepting condolences following her father’s funeral, 30-something narrator Claire receives an email saying that one of her paintings is a finalist for a prize. But her joy is short-circuited the next morning when she learns in a second apologetic note that the initial email had been sent to the wrong Claire. The sender, Lucas Kane, is “terribly, terribly sorry” for his mistake. Claire, torn between her anger and suicidal thoughts, has doubts about his sincerity and stalks him to a London pub, where his fate is sealed: “I stare at Lucas Kane in real life, and within moments I know. He doesn’t look sorry.” She dispatches and buries Lucas in her back garden, but this crime does not go unnoticed. Proud of her meticulous standards as a serial killer, Claire wonders if her grief for her father is making her reckless as she seeks to identify the blackmailer among the members of her weekly bereavement support group. The female serial killer as antihero is a growing subgenre (see Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer, 2018), and Wallace’s sociopathic protagonist is a mordantly amusing addition; the tool she uses to interact with ordinary people while hiding her homicidal nature is especially sardonic: “Whenever I’m unsure of how I’m expected to respond, I use a cliché. Even if I’m not sure what it means, even if I use it incorrectly, no one ever seems to mind.” The well-written storyline tackles some tough subjects—dementia, elder abuse, and parental cruelty—but the convoluted plot starts to drag at the halfway point. Given the lack of empathy in Claire’s narration, most of the characters come across as not very likable, and the reader tires of her sneering contempt.
Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9780143136170
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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