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THE CONCEALERS

Readers who like their fiction with a strong dose of inspiration and morality will enjoy this outing.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
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A fledgling reporter works to uncover her father’s true identity in the second novel of Kaufman’s (The Collectibles, 2010, etc.) trilogy.

Katherine Kelly, enrolled in journalism school, is not one to let an interesting story slip away. So when she decides that she wants to know who her father is, her mother realizes that she cannot keep the secret any longer. When Katherine finally meets Preston Wilson, he seems to be all she could hope for: intelligent, kind, generous with his wealth and pleased to include his newfound daughter in his life. As she gets to know him, however, she learns that Preston may not be so perfect. He doesn’t give enough attention to his wife or young son, and he seems to be shirking his responsibilities to “The Collectibles,” a group of people whom he promised to help (in the first book of this series). Meanwhile, Katherine’s first reporting job leads her to a complex fraud investigation, to which some of Preston’s employees may be linked. As she digs further, she begins to wonder whether her father is also part of the scandal—and whether she should pursue the story. Since this is the second book in a trilogy, it asks more questions than it answers, leaving most resolutions for the last volume. Also, it may be difficult for some readers to become engaged in The Collectibles characters if they haven’t read the first book. Katherine, though, makes an appealing lead—ambitious and headstrong, with a kind heart and a desire to do the right thing. In this case, the “right” thing isn’t clear, making her storyline interestingly unpredictable. The author also deftly manages the large cast of characters, so it’s easy to keep track of who’s who.

Readers who like their fiction with a strong dose of inspiration and morality will enjoy this outing.

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2013

ISBN: 978-0982587362

Page Count: 404

Publisher: Downstream Publishing LLC.

Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013

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YOU'D LOOK BETTER AS A GHOST

Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.

Dexter meets Killing Eve in Wallace’s dark comic thriller debut.

While accepting condolences following her father’s funeral, 30-something narrator Claire receives an email saying that one of her paintings is a finalist for a prize. But her joy is short-circuited the next morning when she learns in a second apologetic note that the initial email had been sent to the wrong Claire. The sender, Lucas Kane, is “terribly, terribly sorry” for his mistake. Claire, torn between her anger and suicidal thoughts, has doubts about his sincerity and stalks him to a London pub, where his fate is sealed: “I stare at Lucas Kane in real life, and within moments I know. He doesn’t look sorry.” She dispatches and buries Lucas in her back garden, but this crime does not go unnoticed. Proud of her meticulous standards as a serial killer, Claire wonders if her grief for her father is making her reckless as she seeks to identify the blackmailer among the members of her weekly bereavement support group. The female serial killer as antihero is a growing subgenre (see Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer, 2018), and Wallace’s sociopathic protagonist is a mordantly amusing addition; the tool she uses to interact with ordinary people while hiding her homicidal nature is especially sardonic: “Whenever I’m unsure of how I’m expected to respond, I use a cliché. Even if I’m not sure what it means, even if I use it incorrectly, no one ever seems to mind.” The well-written storyline tackles some tough subjects—dementia, elder abuse, and parental cruelty—but the convoluted plot starts to drag at the halfway point. Given the lack of empathy in Claire’s narration, most of the characters come across as not very likable, and the reader tires of her sneering contempt.

Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.

Pub Date: April 16, 2024

ISBN: 9780143136170

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Penguin

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

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DAUGHTER OF MINE

Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.

The loss of her police officer father and the discovery of an abandoned car in a local lake raise chilling questions regarding a young woman’s family history.

When Hazel Sharp returns to her hometown of Mirror Lake, North Carolina, for her father’s memorial, she and the other townspeople are confronted by a challenging double whammy: As they’re grieving the loss of beloved longtime police officer Detective Perry Holt, a disturbing sight appears in the lake, whose waterline is receding because of an ongoing drought—an old, unidentifiable car, which has likely been lurking there for years. Hazel temporarily leaves her Charlotte-based building-renovation business in the capable hands of her partners and reconnects with her brothers, Caden and Gage; her Uncle Roy; her old fling and neighbor, Nico; and her schoolfriend, Jamie, now a mother and married to Caden. Tiny, relentless suspicions rise to the metaphorical surface along with that waterlogged vehicle: There have been a slew of minor break-ins; two people go missing; and then, a second abandoned car is discovered. The novel digs deeper into Hazel’s family history—her father was a widow when he married Hazel’s mother, who later left the family, absconding with money and jewels—and Miranda, a consummate professional when it comes to exposing the small community tensions that naturally arise when people live in close proximity for generations, exposes revelation after twisty revelation: “Everything mattered disproportionately in a small town. Your success, but also your failure. Everyone knows might as well have been our town motto.”

Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.

Pub Date: April 9, 2024

ISBN: 9781668010440

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024

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