An action-packed topical read that is sometimes overly complicated.
Fiction borrows heavily from fact in this stark action novel built around Mexico’s drug war as it spills into the U.S.
Grant Meredith is the stoic, stubborn hero of his own privatized effort to take down a cartel kingpin. Trouble is, the kingpin—who has a grudge against Meredith to begin with—is the father of the president of Mexico, a stature that protects him with a complicated sociopolitical reality that includes the police, judiciary and armed forces. Meredith has an arsenal of his own, however, including his multinational security company, BlackRock. High-caliber havoc ensues. The subtitle of the book sums it up: Murder or Self Defense on the Mexican Border. Or both murder and self-defense, as bullets fly north and south in a sprawling story that has henchmen beheaded, padrones shot in the face and sharpshooters picked off by other sharpshooters. The gist of the tale is painfully realistic, ripped quite literally from the headlines (the author acknowledges this in an appendix of news stories). Merriman—a military veteran who lives in Arizona and Colorado—has done his homework. For example, one passage describes in concise fashion the vast illicit-drug economy that supports people from all walks of life: “Farmers, importers, purchasing agents, negotiators, shippers, financial managers, money launderers, accountants, lawyers, intelligence agents, communications specialists, car thieves, enforcers, spotters, distribution agents, smugglers and street sellers.” That’s what Meredith is up against. While the factual basis of the narrative is compelling, the central drama between Meredith and his nemesis is lost sometimes in an excessive character count and a tangled plot. There’s also the fact that Meredith is essentially a soldier of fortune, a quality that will hinder his likeability for some readers—BlackRock being so reminiscent of Blackwater USA, the military contractor that became so controversial in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The story has a neat closing twist, however, and Meredith’s alliance with a beautiful assassin is an inspired idea.
An action-packed topical read that is sometimes overly complicated.Pub Date: June 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470002244
Page Count: 342
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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