While flawed, this thriller about a psychopath still delivers plenty of action and a fine introduction to a new author.
The search for a ruthless killer brings together the police departments and the citizenry of two small Missouri towns.
This debut novel, a thriller set in the quiet towns of Blackhorse and Sweetwater, follows a crowded cast of primary characters whose back stories converge. Former U.S. Marshal Stuart Riedel, seriously injured in a takedown, moves with his wife and three children from Chicago to Blackhorse, where he has been hired as a police detective. He immediately becomes involved in the investigation of the murder of an apparently unknown young woman (“There were no real leads at this point, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. He just needed to continue bulldogging the case and working the streets. Being new in town made him feel like a rookie again”). Simultaneously, over in Sweetwater, Charlie Joe Bingham, an impetuous young lawyer, represents her friend Audrey Lemoine in court in a child custody case. When Charlie Joe engages in some courtroom antics that are less than orthodox and result in a violent outburst by Audrey’s husband, Neil, the judge assigns her to a month’s service in Legal Aid. The posting forces her to work closely with childhood friend and love interest Sheriff Jeremiah Stone. Meanwhile, a psychopathic killer lurks in the woods, his sights set on Charlie Joe and Reidel and his family. Readers should understand rather quickly how most of these characters are related, but the real question is who will survive. Buck displays some impressive skills. The complicated plot is well organized, and the author moves the focus smoothly back and forth between the two towns, gradually building tension. Despite the careful construction of the narrative, there are a few problems with the text. The timeline seems a bit off, as Stone and Charlie Joe must be at least a bit older than the story implies if he is already a sheriff and she a licensed lawyer. Then there is the occasional inconsistency—a friend’s house is three blocks away early in the story and 15 blocks away later on. And the author allows a few minor linguistic errors to creep in. At one point, for example, Buck writes that someone has been “prosecuted to the full extend [sic] of the law.”
While flawed, this thriller about a psychopath still delivers plenty of action and a fine introduction to a new author.Pub Date: July 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5029-6398-7
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
This first novel, ostensibly about the friendship between two boys, Reuven and Danny, from the time when they are fourteen on opposing yeshiva ball clubs, is actually a gently didactic differentiation between two aspects of the Jewish faith, the Hasidic and the Orthodox. Primarily the Hasidic, the little known mystics with their beards, earlocks and stringently reclusive way of life. According to Reuven's father who is a Zionist, an activist, they are fanatics; according to Danny's, other Jews are apostates and Zionists "goyim." The schisms here are reflected through discussions, between fathers and sons, and through the separation imposed on the two boys for two years which still does not affect their lasting friendship or enduring hopes: Danny goes on to become a psychiatrist refusing his inherited position of "tzaddik"; Reuven a rabbi.... The explanation, in fact exegesis, of Jewish culture and learning, of the special dedication of the Hasidic with its emphasis on mind and soul, is done in sufficiently facile form to engage one's interest and sentiment. The publishers however see a much wider audience for The Chosen. If they "rub their tzitzis for good luck,"—perhaps—although we doubt it.
Pub Date: April 28, 1967
ISBN: 0449911543
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967
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