by Jethro K. Lieberman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 2021
A broad, sweetly fantastical satire just perfect for readers in the mood.
Prolific lawyer and retired law professor Lieberman’s first solo novel is a whimsical tale of a secret plot to make seriously bad guys incriminate themselves.
Throughout his long and storied criminal career, Romo Malbonum, the Deckled Don, has never had to answer any legal charges. But one day, FBI agent Dewey Sisal tells Assistant U.S. Attorney Mallory Greenstock, the Don approached him and said he wanted to confess in court to a litany of crimes. In order to ensure that everything’s aboveboard, Malbonum will be represented by the illustrious Jedidiah Cardsworth Tillinghast, one-time college roommate of the presiding judge, Horton Pickscreed, and the confession will be captured on video. The only condition is that the proceedings must be wrapped up by this coming Friday. Mallory rubs her eyes, asks a few skeptical questions, and agrees, and Malbonum appears on schedule and confesses for hours as Judge Pickscreed looks on in growing bewilderment. Weird? Absolutely. But not nearly as weird as the moment days later when Malbonum, now that he’s been duly recorded, sentenced, and imprisoned, maintains that the whole confession was a hoax because whoever made it wasn’t him, despite oodles of evidence that it was. Troubled and baffled, Mallory calls on her old acquaintance and consulting detective T.R. Softly to get to the bottom of the mystery, and within days, Softly has discovered that this entire spectacle has been a mere curtain raiser to a deep-laid plot against President Mark Malleycorn Pohtiss, an intemperate crackpot whose public pronouncements, reprinted at length, are so demented and fact-free that the FBI’s code name for him is Fruitcake.
A broad, sweetly fantastical satire just perfect for readers in the mood.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-953103-11-6
Page Count: 436
Publisher: Three Rooms Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Share your opinion of this book
by Lisa Scottoline ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2024
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.
The ne’er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren’t exactly the upstanding citizens they appear.
The first 35 years in the life of Thomas “TJ” Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who’s been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie’s then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier—until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John’s way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can’t trust anything his brother has said since he’s fallen off the wagon. TJ, who’s maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you’ll have a much better time than TJ.
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780525539704
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
More by Lisa Scottoline
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by C.J. Box ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 27, 2024
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
More by C.J. Box
BOOK REVIEW
by C.J. Box
BOOK REVIEW
by C.J. Box
BOOK REVIEW
by C.J. Box
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.