Memorable characters headline this absorbing (despite its dawdling pace) international thriller.
In Van Le’s debut novel, the first in a trilogy, an English Canadian geologist in West Africa finds himself a captive of jihadists.
Geologist Jake Hall works at Maranga Goldfields, a Canadian “junior” mining company. When his boss sends him to the firm’s Mali headquarters to check on a colleague’s gold exploration project, Hall discovers that the man has been injured and that his pregnant wife, Ayesha, has been abducted. While searching for the woman, Hall himself is taken and winds up in a jihadist group’s clutches. His captors want his company, or perhaps the Canadian government, to fork over a tidy ransom for Hall’s release. But when no one seems willing to pay, the jihadists go another route, determined to find a way to squeeze money out of Maranga Goldfields’ gold mine in Mali; surely, their geologist captive has the know-how and inside information to help them score a hefty payday. There’s no telling how things will play out when the jihadists team up with a North Africa–based ethnic group, the very same one that’s holding Ayesha hostage. Van Le’s story hits the ground running with a daring kidnapping and Hall stumbling into the bloody aftermath. (“In less than sixty seconds, the men had shoved the woman on top of the saddle, mounted their animals, and trotted off into the darkness with their prize.”) The bulk of the novel, however, lingers on Hall’s and Ayesha’s dual internments. This material entails much stagnant philosophical discourse, debates about ransom, and repetitive condemnations of Western religion and politics. Still, the cast is wonderfully diverse, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police contemplating a rescue attempt to the various groups in North and West Africa, including the Tuareg and Arabs. The standout character is Ayesha, a Muslim woman who finds common ground with her fellow French hostage, Marion, a devout Christian; both are admirably strong women who defy numerous threats while in captivity. The author, who ably details colorful landscapes and harsh desert terrain, builds to a frenzied final act, upon which a sequel will most assuredly elaborate.
Memorable characters headline this absorbing (despite its dawdling pace) international thriller.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781738305803
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Sattva Publishing Inc.
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.
Travel writer Lo Blacklock is back. Ten years after the events of The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), she's attending the opening of a lavish Swiss hotel when, once again, a mystery intervenes.
A decade after she almost died on a luxury cruise and ended up exposing a murder plot, travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock is trying to get back into the business post-Covid-19 and post–maternity leave. When she's invited to an exclusive hotel launch by the Leidmann Group on the shores of Switzerland’s gorgeous Lake Geneva, her supportive husband, Judah, insists that she should go, and her old boss, Rowan, says that if Lo can score an interview with the reclusive Marcus Leidmann, she’ll publish it in the Financial Times. Leaving Judah and the kids at home in New York, Lo is surprised by a last-minute upgrade to first class, which kicks off her trip in style. The hotel is appropriately awe-inspiring in both scenic location and effortless luxury, and Lo starts to put the memories of last trip’s trauma behind her, thinking that maybe she can just enjoy the experience this time. But then, at dinner, she's surprised to see at least three guests who were also on that original cruise, and when she finds a mysterious note in her room saying "Please come to suite 11 as soon as possible," she gets another shock. To quote William Faulkner, she realizes that “the past is never dead,” and soon Lo is careening across Europe on her way to England, only to find herself embroiled in another murder. The back half of the novel offers her the opportunity to continue her amateur sleuthing, and while she avoids much of the physical danger that plagued her on the cruise a decade ago, she is in very real legal trouble. This is the prolific Ware’s first sequel, and it's fun to spend time with Lo again, as she's both savvy and kindhearted. Unfortunately, the mystery is not as atmospheric and gripping as usual for Ware, though even a lesser Ruth Ware thriller is still worth reading.
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781668025628
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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