A captivating and intelligently conceived crime drama.
In this novel, a young missionary is kidnapped and, in lieu of money, his abductors seek a lost book.
While in Sacramento en route to a two-year mission, Thatcher Hayes, an 18-year-old member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is kidnapped at gunpoint. His uncle, Gene, receives a peculiar request from Thatcher’s abductors: They demand possession of the book of Lehi, the opening chapter of the Book of Mormon that was purportedly lost. Some believe the book of Lehi contains translation discrepancies that could undermine the church’s long held doctrine and could refute the story of the religion’s genesis. Gene calls his nephew, Altan Stalker, a self-described “tech nerd” who has a kind of oblique experience in investigation—his company developed software for law enforcement agencies. Gene asks Altan to find Thatcher. Altan is assisted by two representatives of the church, Maren Oaks and Cumorah McKenzie, and is begrudgingly kept apprized by the FBI of its own probe. Sprague tantalizingly describes the missing book and its significance—even Gene, a venerated apostle in the church, can’t state with absolute certainty that it doesn’t exist. Altan uncovers another, older plot to steal a possible copy of the book, and his progress endangers his own life—he’s shot at and narrowly escapes kidnapping. The author’s plot flirts with convolution, but is ultimately a truly suspenseful tale of crime, betrayal, and faith. In addition, Altan is a memorable protagonist—in the wake of his wife’s sudden death, he’s angry at God for his loss but also moved by the undeniable decency of the church members he knows. Sprague can be a touch didactic—there are overly long lessons on the church’s theology and history, however lucidly and thoughtfully rendered. Still, the story as a whole is an impressive mélange of mayhem, mystery, emotional conflict, and theological reflection.
A captivating and intelligently conceived crime drama.Pub Date: May 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-09-682715-3
Page Count: 381
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Fans will relish every high-energy moment without demanding rational explanations for every detail.
A retired hit man’s wish to impress his new love leads him back into a thicket of crime and corruption.
During the dinner date they’re finally going out on, Chicago area therapist Gwendolyn Lord shares with English professor Cameron Winter a story she’s just heard from forensic psychologist Livy Swain, an old school friend, of an impossible crime. Owen McKay, arrested six months ago for killing his wife and son and crying, “It’s still there! Still there!,” was shot to death with a nail gun inside his closely watched prison cell. Though his initial reaction is idle curiosity, Winter resolves to show off his prowess to Gwendolyn by solving the mystery. Dr. Billy Whitefield, the pathologist who conducted the postmortem on McKay, shares with Winter a monstrous revelation that he’s been blackmailed into concealing: He removed a spidery attachment from McKay’s brain whose existence was deleted from the official report. After a friend at his college links the implant to Thaumatix—a company whose motto is “We’re in the business of miracles”—Winter learns of another case that sounds eerily similar: the kidnapping, rape, and murder of a Connecticut high school student by a previously inoffensive carpenter who’s killed before Winter can question him. Surrounded by assassins and amoral corporate overlords, Winter leans more and more into his relationship with Gwendolyn, though the person he most wants to talk to is the Recruiter, the nameless boss he trusted to make life-or-death decisions when he worked as a contract killer. Miraculously, the Recruiter, who’s vanished, returns to Winter’s life. But what if he can’t be trusted any more than everyone else?
Fans will relish every high-energy moment without demanding rational explanations for every detail.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781613166864
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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