A gory but uninspired horror novel, set in the borderlands.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent stumbles across a massive crime syndicate in Galvan’s supernatural thriller.
Santiago cuts a pretty intimidating image, speeding along a Texas road in his ’67 Plymouth Barracuda with his long black hair and his ancient skull ring, listening to Black Sabbath at full blast. It turns out he’s on a mission of conquest—or, more accurately, reconquest. ICE agent Diego DeAntonio doesn’t know it, but he’s right in Santiago’s path. Diego wakes up hung over on a park bench surrounded by last night’s empty bottles; he and his partner, Sarah Parker, are investigating a brutal murder at a local community college that they suspect was committed by an undocumented migrant worker. Diego also has a feeling that something sketchy is going on at the Azul Ranch, but his captain, whose cousin owns the ranch, won’t let him pursue it. Diego sneaks onto it anyway and gets a new warning to stay away—at gunpoint—from none other than a Texas senator. When Sarah is killed while investigating the same case, Diego knows that nothing will stop him from finding the truth. Unfortunately, the truth is more monstrous—literally—than anything he can imagine. Galvan’s prose style is consistently energetic and heightened, as when he describes Diego’s villainous commanding officer: “Diego is always hypnotized by the Captain’s eyebrows, so bushy and solid black, in contrast to his head of pure white locks, slicked back Steven-Seagal-style. He even has that same small erect rattail…no doubt meant to compensate for any feeling of impotence.” The book presents a hodgepodge of contemporary fever dreams—including government conspiracies, child- smuggling operations, and even werewolf mythology—although Galvan seems to have no agenda, other than to shock. That said, the violence is gratuitous, the dialogue mostly inane, and the characters are only minimally developed; Galvan’s primary influence seems to be horror movies, and he borrows from some of them quite blatantly (particularly 1995’s Seven). Unfortunately, the plot goes so far off the rails by the end that readers may lose interest.
A gory but uninspired horror novel, set in the borderlands.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-578-73894-9
Page Count: 158
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
BOOK TO SCREEN
A terrifying page-turner with the complexities of fatherhood at its core.
The serial killer who terrorized a small British town by kidnapping and murdering five little boys has been locked up for over a decade. So who could have taken 6-year-old Neil Spencer?
"The first forty-eight hours following a disappearance are the most crucial." And yet one of those hours has gone by the time Neil's separated parents realize he never made it from his father's house to his mother's, a short walk he took alone. One of the main investigators of the crime is DI Pete Willis, who cracked a similar case years back and has never quite recovered from it, especially since one of the missing boys was never found. Is there an accomplice still on the loose? As Willis and his colleagues comb the town for clues about the disappearance, a recently widowed novelist and his young son move into what they don't yet know is called "the scary house." Jake is a bright but isolated child who has relied heavily on an imaginary friend and a Packet of Special Things for comfort since he came home from school one day to find his mother's lifeless body at the foot of the stairs. This move is meant to be a much-needed fresh start for the grieving and bewildered father and son, but from the start nothing goes right. On Jake's first day at his new school, the other children draw him into discussion about the missing boy and the Whisper Man who took him. Soon enough, Jake hears whispering too. North's novel pits nasty men submerged in evil against decent men struggling to do good; several father-son pairs reflect the challenges and darker possibilities of this relationship, though plotlines involving female characters are a bit undeveloped.
A terrifying page-turner with the complexities of fatherhood at its core.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31799-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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