An overwrought flight of fancy that deserves to be returned to its box unopened.
A doctor inherits power beyond imagination from her murdered mother.
The usual sins, among them stilted writing and laughable plotting, persist in Johansen’s latest (Stalemate, 2007, etc.), a wretched fusion of Carrie and The Da Vinci Code. During childhood, Megan Blair heard voices in her head, which threatened to drive her mad. Her torment abruptly ceased with her mother’s murder when she was placed under the care of her kindly uncle Phillip. Now an ER physician at a hospital in Atlanta, Blair is shocked when a murderous thug named Tim Darnell tries to run her off the road during a botched assassination attempt. Soon Phillip and his cohort Neal Grady reveal the far-fetched circumstances of her condition. They, like Megan’s mother, have psychic powers, and Megan may be the most powerful member of their clan. They recognize Megan as a “listener,” a seer who hears the echoes of tragedies past, but fear she may also be a “Pandora,” with the power to unleash latent psychic talents in others. A more corporeal threat looms from the Sicilian sadist Molino, a slave-trader with a feudal rage toward Megan’s family who mutters stupid, malevolent oaths like, “Women are so soft and breakable.” Even if readers can surmount this preposterous introduction and hand-holding explanations delivered via simplistic dialogue, negotiating Johansen’s equally outlandish treasure hunt in the latter half is still a laborious exercise. The bad guys are after a ledger drafted during the Spanish Inquisition that details the names, location—and particular talents—of the ancestors of a demonized Spanish patriarch, as well as the keys to the family fortune. Escorted by new lover Grady and protected by an empathetic mercenary, Megan chases her nemesis from France to Germany before returning to Atlanta for a dim-witted denouement and a cliffhanger ending.
An overwrought flight of fancy that deserves to be returned to its box unopened.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-312-36804-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
Taut and fraught with surprise twists, Hillier’s thriller is addictive.
“Free Abby Maddox, 2/10.” Carved into the back of a murdered prostitute, these words resurrect a violent story that everyone thought had ended.
Picking up where Creep (2010) left off, the latest from Hillier reassembles a cast of characters facing the aftermath of serial killer Ethan Wolfe’s death. Dubbed the Tell Tale Heart killer, Wolfe had seduced and tortured psychology professor and recovering sex addict Sheila Tao. Now that Wolfe is dead and his girlfriend, Abby Maddox, has been incarcerated for attacking Detective Jerry Isaac, Sheila believes she can rebuild her life. Retired from the force and estranged from his wife, Jerry struggles to regain his confidence after Maddox’s attack. The scar she left on his throat is simply the physical manifestation of the scars within his psyche. Suddenly, the wary peace is shattered, and Jerry’s partner calls him back to help with a murder case. The corpse bears a strong resemblance to Maddox, and the killer has strangled her with a zip tie. The message carved into her back prophesies nine more victims. Who is willing to kill for Maddox’s freedom? Twists and turns reveal a website devoted to freeing Maddox, a trash bag full of fan letters to Maddox and a mysterious young man hiring prostitutes online. Jerry isn’t quite ready to cope with this case, particularly when the only leads seem to lie in Maddox’s hands. Even more strange, Maddox wants to talk to Sheila. Luckily, Jerry has a new intern, Danny. Studying to become a criminologist, Danny is, of course, intrigued by the case. Her fresh-faced interest, energy and technological skills rejuvenate Jerry’s hunt. Yet as the kill count mounts, he has to begin to wonder: Is someone orchestrating everyone’s every move? The second book in this series leaves readers hungry for the next.
Taut and fraught with surprise twists, Hillier’s thriller is addictive.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-6454-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
Graham Greene he's not. Not even John le Carre or Geoffrey Household. But Ken Follett is here with that particularly British tone of controlled, leisurely tension—you'll feel it on the very first page—that can transform a not-very-original spy plot into a sly gavotte that has you holding your breath as the dancers slowly come together. The familiar D-Day gimmick: only one man can ruin the secrecy of the Normandy landing—a top German undercover agent known as "The Needle" because of his deadly stiletto. But Follett immediately declares his independence from cliches: by luring us over to The Needle's point of view, forcing us to admire his ingenuity (even as he murders a harmless landlady and then his own confederate); by making three-dimensional fellows of the British intelligence men who must catch The Needle before he makes contact with a German submarine; and by dropping in the apparently extraneous story of a young, unhappy man and wife who've been living on an empty North Sea island ever since the husband lost his legs in a honeymoon car accident. Ah, but of course, we know that this couple will be linked to The Needle, and it's with satisfaction that we watch the spy being washed up, half dead, on that island in his attempt to reach a German ship. What then follows—the romance between The Needle and the lovestarved wife, their hideous and unwilling death-duel—is badly marred by explicit sex and explicit sentimentality that, like Follett's occasional anachronistic or heavyhanded fumbles, violate the tone and period feel. But perhaps it's just as well: if Follett's debut were flawless, he'd have nowhere to go. As it is, Eye of the Needle introduces a fresh if not especially distinctive voice in suspense—and is easily the best first novel in the espionage genre since The Day of the Jackal.
Pub Date: July 31, 1978
ISBN: 006074815X
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Arbor House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1978
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