Patient, professional, and uninspired, without a single memorable character, plot twist, or surprise.
The archbishop of Phoenix, threatened with death by a woman determined to avenge the long-ago suicide of her abused son, turns for help to Ali Reynolds and B. Simpson, the married couple behind the cybersecurity firm High Noon Enterprises, and one of them responds in spades.
Still grieving the death of her friend Alexandra Munsey, Ali is in no mood for further heroics. But she’s struck by the sincerity and humility of Archbishop Francis Gillespie, who’s helped High Noon before, when he shows the couple the anonymous threats against him that have been dropped in collection baskets around the diocese. He has no idea who’s sending them, but readers do: It’s housewife Rachel Higgins, whose life has ground to a hellish halt ever since her son, David, fatally overdosed several years ago. When a chance discovery reveals that David was one of the victims of his swim coach, predatory priest Paul Needham, Rachel vows revenge—not against Needham, whose prison term was cut short when he died of AIDS in 2008, but against his enablers in the church. The irony that Gillespie has stood out from most churchmen because of the unflagging, “no-holds-barred” measures he’s taken against abusive priests is completely lost on her as she methodically plots to execute him and frame homeless Desert Storm veteran Jack Stoneman for his murder. When a nonnegotiable demand from a Swiss client who faces a ransomware threat takes B. to Zurich, Ali is left virtually on her own to protect the archbishop from a determined and increasingly resourceful killer.
Patient, professional, and uninspired, without a single memorable character, plot twist, or surprise.Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3107-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.
When a man accused of rape turns up dead, an Early American town seeks justice amid rumors and controversy.
Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here. As Martha tells her patient in an opening chapter set in 1789, “You need not fear….In all my years attending women in childbirth, I have never lost a mother.” This track record grows in numerous compelling scenes of labor and delivery, particularly one in which Martha has to clean up after the mistakes of a pompous doctor educated at Harvard, one of her nemeses in a town that roils with gossip and disrespect for women’s abilities. Supposedly, the only time a midwife can testify in court is regarding paternity when a woman gives birth out of wedlock—but Martha also takes the witness stand in the rape case against a dead man named Joshua Burgess and his living friend Col. Joseph North, whose role as judge in local court proceedings has made the victim, Rebecca Foster, reluctant to make her complaint public. Further complications are numerous: North has control over the Ballard family's lease on their property; Rebecca is carrying the child of one of her rapists; Martha’s son was seen fighting with Joshua Burgess on the day of his death. Lawhon weaves all this into a richly satisfying drama that moves suspensefully between childbed, courtroom, and the banks of the Kennebec River. The undimmed romance between 40-something Martha and her husband, Ephraim, adds a racy flair to the proceedings. Knowing how rare the quality of their relationship is sharpens the intensity of Martha’s gaze as she watches the romantic lives of her grown children unfold. As she did with Nancy Wake in Code Name Hélène (2020), Lawhon creates a stirring portrait of a real-life heroine and, as in all her books, includes an endnote with detailed background.
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780385546874
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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