Death, life, redemption and music combine in a rewarding novel.
A teenage girl goes missing, and the reader learns the intertwining stories of her family and neighbors.
The author’s knowledge of and love for music are evident in the chapters told from the perspective of the missing girl’s next-door neighbor, Mr. Leonard, a retired music teacher and pianist. Readers who love Liszt, Chopin, Brahms and other classical composers will find their reading experience enhanced. The stories revolve around childhood difficulties, parenting difficulties and the companionship (or lack thereof) in marriages, as well as the various kinds of secrets that people keep. The author creates a mystery surrounding the whereabouts and fate of the unusually mature 17-year-old Linsey. Along the way, other mysteries and conflicts are raised and resolved, all with an eye toward offering insights into relationships: relationships with loved ones, relationships with neighbors, relationships with those we might not ordinarily notice or care about.
Death, life, redemption and music combine in a rewarding novel.Pub Date: March 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4516-8474-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
Ace symbologist Robert Langdon returns, and the world trembles. Perfect escapist reading for fans.
Brown’s (The Lost Symbol, 2009, etc.) latest, in which a very bad guy is convinced that there are entirely too many people roaming the surface of the planet, and, because he’s a fan of Dante and the Plague both, he’s set to unleash inferno upon the world.
Naturally enough, this being a Brown novel, someone is in possession of a piece of occult knowledge that will save the day—or not. The novel is populated with the usual elements in the form of secret, conspiratorial organizations and villains on the way to being supervillains, and readers of a literary bent may find the writing tortured: “This morning, as he stepped onto the private balcony of his yacht’s stateroom, the provost looked across the churning sea and tried to fend off the disquiet that had settled in his gut.” To his credit, Brown’s yarn is somewhat more tightly constructed than his earlier Langdon vehicles, though its best parts are either homages or borrowings; the punky chick assassin who threatens Langdon, for instance, seems to have wandered in from a Stieg Larsson set, while the car-chase-and-explosions stuff, to say nothing of Langdon’s amnesiac wanderings around the world, would seem to be a nod to Robert Ludlum. (Being chased by a drone is a nice touch, though.) If you want more of the great medieval poet Dante woven into a taut thriller, see Matthew Pearl’s The Dante Club.
Ace symbologist Robert Langdon returns, and the world trembles. Perfect escapist reading for fans.Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-385-53785-8
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
Cheap fun: a guilty pleasure few monster-addicts will be able to resist.
A witty, grisly debut about the secret adventures of a Florida sociopath who murders only bad guys.
Dexter Morgan makes his living off the blood of the dead—literally. A “blood-splatter analyst” for the Miami Police Department, Dexter works only on the messiest cases, nearly all homicides and quite a few the work of serial killers. It takes one to know one, too, for Dexter has a very deep and well-guarded secret: He’s been bumping people off for years. Dexter knew from an early age that he was somehow different, and his father, Detective Harry Morgan, had picked up enough abnormal psychology on the job to recognize the signs. Harry tried to help Dexter out by suggesting that the boy might want to make a virtue of necessity by concentrating his murderous energies on the truly wicked people of the world—and Dexter agreed, beginning with the hospice nurse who was systematically overdosing Harry with morphine. From that day forward, Dexter (and his ghostly imaginary friend, the Dark Passenger) have done well by doing bad, disposing of a long line of pedophiles, killers, sadists, and thugs. A consummate professional, Dexter has never left a shred of incriminating evidence behind, but lately he’s begun to worry. A copycat killer is on the loose, leaving a string of victims strewn about the dark byways of Miami bearing the trademarks of Dexter’s handiwork in an obvious attempt to lure him out of hiding. Dexter can play his hand close to his chest, but unfortunately for him one of the cops assigned to the new cases is his sister Deborah, who knows nothing of Dexter’s extracurricular activities. Part of Dexter wants to come of the cold and play with this new guy on the block, but he feels an obligation to keep his sister from being implicated. It’s not just thieves, after all: There’s honor among murderers, too.
Cheap fun: a guilty pleasure few monster-addicts will be able to resist.Pub Date: July 27, 2004
ISBN: 0-385-51123-X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2004
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