Fina’s third adventure follows the pattern of the first two: fashion, fat, and sugar. But Thoft (Identity, 2014, etc.) is an...
A whirlwind of a Boston-based detective with a fluid sense of ethics finds answers for a grieving mother.
When a home invasion leaves Liz Barone in a coma, her mother, Bobbi, hires Josefina Ludlow to find out why anyone would hurt her daughter—a hard worker, a loyal wife, and a dedicated mother. Fina suspects it’s related to the lawsuit Liz was bringing against her employer and alma mater, New England University, for the long-term effects of head trauma she suffered as a soccer-playing student. And Fina wants to know why, in spite of the lawsuit, Liz had still been getting fundraising letters from Pamela Fordyce, an NEU development officer, and why Pamela is so uncomfortable in an interview. Fina also catches Liz’s former coach, Kevin Lafferty, who’s a volunteer booster-club president for NEU, in a couple of lies. Fina’s not above telling whoppers herself, even though she rationalizes she’s fibbing for a good cause, especially after Liz dies and the case turns from assault to murder. Fina’s under orders to steer the NEU lawsuit into the Ludlow family shop, one of the leading personal-injury law firms in the country, but she hopes it will bring relief to Liz’s survivors. Although she’s a law school dropout herself, Fina uses her energy and determination to follow every lead (including some that lead to a couple of unrelated cases), with numerous pit stops for fast food and an occasional tumble with her guy pals. She soon has all too many clues, and the definite idea—thanks to a threatening note and a bomb that sets her borrowed car on fire—that someone wants her to back off. But whoever hopes to discourage her doesn’t know how relentless Fina can be and how hard she’ll work to find the killer.
Fina’s third adventure follows the pattern of the first two: fashion, fat, and sugar. But Thoft (Identity, 2014, etc.) is an entertaining storyteller, and her quirky protagonist’s the equal of any male gumshoe.Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-17118-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
A solid sense of place, a looming sense of menace: a frequently gripping read.
Veste’s moody procedural tells the story of a pair of Liverpool detectives tracking a killer influenced by local mythology.
Louise Henderson, the investigator at the heart of this novel, is a detective with secrets. She keeps some from her partner, DS Shipley; when the book opens, she’s also grappling with moments of sudden and inexplicable terror that leave her unsure of their origin and unsettled by their impact on her. Soon, the detectives take up the case of a woman who escaped a deadly attack—and who believes it was the work of the title character, a local legend who may be a murderer, a supernatural creature, or something else entirely. Not long after that, a dead body shows up, which suggests a connection to an earlier death, but a host of loose ends hang for the detectives to piece together—and there’s also the matter of a series of flashbacks set years earlier, when a teenager vanished. How these seemingly disparate elements connect—sometimes linearly, sometimes via well-made twists—leads the novel to its conclusion. Veste’s slow-burning approach works well, sustaining the sense of general wrongness that gives the narrative so much atmosphere. There are a few heavy-handed moments here and there. “They thought they knew evil. They had no idea” is perhaps the most flagrant example; as this book is either about a serial killer or an urban legend come to life, that sense of menace is already built in to the narrative well enough. But the conclusion is largely satisfying, playing well off the dynamics Veste established over the course of the story.
A solid sense of place, a looming sense of menace: a frequently gripping read.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7129-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not this time, though. The fact-based mutilations are so outré you just know the answer’s going to be a letdown, and it...
Dead fish and game are only the appetizers for Warden Joe Pickett’s biggest problems in his fourth case.
It’s obvious that cavalier local fisherman Jeff O’Bannon is to blame for the fish floating belly-up in Crazy Woman Creek. But who’s killed the elk, excised the flesh from half his face, and dragged off his enormous carcass? Who’s killed 12 head of Don Hawkins’s cattle in exactly the same way? And has this slaughter of innocents been nothing more than preparation for the remarkably similar murders of ranch hand Tuff Montegue and water-engineering exec Stuart Tanner? Robey Hersig, the County Attorney heading the hastily assembled Northern Wyoming Murder and Mutilations Task Force, lists the likeliest causes: “BIRDS . . . CULTS . . . DISTURBED INDIVIDUALS . . . ARABS . . . GOVERNMENT AGENTS . . . GRIZZLY BEAR . . . ALIENS.” But Joe, skeptical of all these explanations, demands the right to investigate on his own. Even though his mortal enemy, Sheriff Bud Barnum, keeps reminding him he’s only a fish-and-game warden, nobody can deny that Joe’s pulled off some spectacular victories in the past (Winterkill, 2003, etc.).
Not this time, though. The fact-based mutilations are so outré you just know the answer’s going to be a letdown, and it is—even though Joe and his family sweat out suspenseful duels with a self-styled paranormal expert and a trusted neighbor.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-399-15200-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2004
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