A rousing, energetic drug tale sure to spark interest in this legal thriller series.
In this sequel, a United States attorney and a task force pursue a murderous cartel leader in South America.
In his past dealings with the Baja Norte Familia, San Diego prosecutor Nick Drummond shot and killed the drug cartel’s lieutenant. But the deputy district attorney, believing Nick shot an unarmed man, brings a first-degree murder indictment against him. Nick is already assisting the U.S. Marshal’s office in linking cartel leader Javier Esquel-Ranchez to the murder of a deputy marshal. As Javier ties up “loose ends” related to the homicide, he also seeks vengeance, which includes putting a hit on Nick for the fatal shooting. In the meantime, Javier heads south, initially to Peru, to establish a way to transport cocaine to the United States. Nick and a task force are intent on capturing the cartel leader so he can face charges in America. They’ll have to track and ultimately confront Javier and his men in the Amazon jungle. But succeeding at trial may necessitate securing a witness: Raul Saladez-Montes, one of the hired guns in the deputy marshal’s homicide, who, after surviving the cartel’s assassination attempt, is on the hunt for Javier. As Dutton’s second installment is directly connected to the preceding novel, Path to Justice (2017), the book hits the ground running. All of the subplots and alternating narrative perspectives, particularly Nick’s and Javier’s, generate a brisk, steady pace. Action takes precedence over the legal battles, and readers unfortunately see very little of Nick inside a courtroom. Nevertheless, the story delivers surprisingly effective melodrama, like Nick, separated from his wife, becoming romantically involved with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Ana Schwartz. Similarly, there are tender moments featuring Javier and Elin Staarsgard, a zoology professor on sabbatical. This relationship makes Javier somewhat sympathetic, even though readers know without a doubt that he’s a malicious criminal.
A rousing, energetic drug tale sure to spark interest in this legal thriller series.Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-951559-01-4
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Lettra Press LLC
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A weird, wild ride.
Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense.
Sager’s debut, Final Girls (2017), was fun and beautifully crafted. His most recent novels—Home Before Dark (2020) and Survive the Night (2021) —have been fun and a bit rickety. His new novel fits that mold. Narrator Casey Fletcher grew up watching her mother dazzle audiences, and then she became an actor herself. While she never achieves the “America’s sweetheart” status her mother enjoyed, Casey makes a career out of bit parts in movies and on TV and meatier parts onstage. Then the death of her husband sends her into an alcoholic spiral that ends with her getting fired from a Broadway play. When paparazzi document her substance abuse, her mother exiles her to the family retreat in Vermont. Casey has a dry, droll perspective that persists until circumstances overwhelm her, and if you’re getting a Carrie Fisher vibe from Casey Fletcher, that is almost certainly not an accident. Once in Vermont, she passes the time drinking bourbon and watching the former supermodel and the tech mogul who live across the lake through a pair of binoculars. Casey befriends Katherine Royce after rescuing her when she almost drowns and soon concludes that all is not well in Katherine and Tom’s marriage. Then Katherine disappears….It would be unfair to say too much about what happens next, but creepy coincidences start piling up, and eventually, Casey has to face the possibility that maybe some of the eerie legends about Lake Greene might have some truth to them. Sager certainly delivers a lot of twists, and he ventures into what is, for him, new territory. Are there some things that don’t quite add up at the end? Maybe, but asking that question does nothing but spoil a highly entertaining read.
A weird, wild ride.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18319-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
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
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