by Hilary Bonner ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2021
An academic suspenser whose brainy bits and action scenes both work beautifully without ever quite coming together.
And now for something completely paranoid from the creator of DI David Vogel of Dreams of Fear (2020, etc.): an intercontinental crime novel whose dark heart is a paper that reveals the secret of consciousness.
Years before she became a celebrity astrophysicist, a household name to everyone with a computer or a television, Exeter U’s Dr. Sandy Jones, who’s just been offered the chancellorship at Oxford, crossed the pond to study at Princeton. Two of the solitary, geeky scholar’s few friends there were closely associated with RECAP, the center for Research into Consciousness at Princeton. Encouraged by her schoolmate Constance Pike and by professor Paul Ruders, who ran RECAP, Jones took enough tests to make her wonder if she might have unsuspected psychic powers herself. Upon completing her Ph.D., she ditched her boyfriend, math prodigy Ed MacEntee, took a job in London, married, divorced, and never looked back. When she brushes off an urgent call from Connie Pike only to discover days later that the campus building housing RECAP was destroyed by a suspected bomb, she’s determined to do something even though she can’t imagine what to do, and it’s too late to help Connie and Ruders, both presumed killed in the explosion. Flying to Princeton, she endures an awkward reunion with Ed, who’s also divorced, and an even more unpleasant run-in with the New Jersey State Police, who arrest her, jail her, and release her on the understanding that she’s to head home immediately. What are the powers that be trying to cover up? And did Paul Ruders indeed plumb the mysteries of consciousness before his own lights were put out for good?
An academic suspenser whose brainy bits and action scenes both work beautifully without ever quite coming together.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7278-9051-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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by Don Winslow ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2024
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.
The dramatic conclusion to the trilogy about two New England crime families begun in City on Fire (2022) and City of Dreams (2023).
Near the end of his journey, multimillionaire Danny Ryan watches a casino implode in a mushroom cloud of dust and muses about his life’s implosions: “The cancer that killed his wife, the depression that destroyed his love, the moral rot that took his soul.” Danny is from Providence, Rhode Island, and desperately tried to leave his criminal life behind him. But using a ton of ill-gotten gains, he invests heavily in Las Vegas properties. Congress is conducting an investigation into gambling that could destroy his casino business and even land him in jail. An FBI agent plans to take Danny down for major sins he’d like to repent for. Meanwhile, can he make peace with his enemies? Nope, doesn’t look like it. Even if the parties involved want to put the past behind them, the trouble is that they don’t trust each other. Is Vern Winegard setting Dan up? Is Dan setting Vern up? “Trust? Trust is children waiting for Santa Claus.” So what could have been a “Kumbaya,” nobody-wants-to-read-this story turns into a grisly bloodletting filled with language that would set Sister Mary Margaret’s wimple on fire—figuratively speaking, as she’s not in the book. But the Catholic reference is appropriate: Two of the many colorful characters of ill repute are known as the Altar Boys, serving “Last Communion” to their victims. On the law-abiding side and out of the line of fire is an ex-nun-turned-prosecutor nicknamed Attila the Nun, who’s determined to bring justice for a gory matricide. (Rhode Island really had such a person, by the way.) Finally, the prose is just fun: A friend warns Dan about Allie Licata: “In a world of sick fucks, even the sick fucks think Licata’s a sick fuck.” A couple of things to note: This not only ends the trilogy, but it also closes out the author’s career, as he has said he’ll write no more novels.
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780063079472
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
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by Lisa Scottoline ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2024
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
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