An entertaining if anticlimactic murder mystery.
A psychologist’s suspicions grow after someone murders a colleague and signs point to wrongdoings at her workplace.
Mikelena Pearson, a Bay Area psychologist, has some problems at work. TWF Healthcare seems more devoted to cutting costs than to patient health. But Mik is content until a rash of suicides of former patients makes her uneasy, as do reports by some young patients of disturbingly real dreams. After the chief of TWF’s psychiatry department dies from a bizarre stabbing, the psychologist receives a mysterious email message that prompts her to investigate further. Through department meetings, patient sessions and talking with colleagues, she pieces together more of the truth, with her brother Erik and a handsome police liaison, Luke Sustern, as sounding boards. Her professional skills come in handy: “My clinical awareness was heightened and my mind was running in therapist mode, searching for the real story….I felt like someone trying to crack a safe, listening intently while the dial turns, waiting for each click of each correct number, so that the tumblers all fall in place and I can open it and find out what is really inside.” Mik isn’t all business, though. She likes “hot, sweaty, passionate sex with the edge that comes from knowing others can see you and with the possibility of being caught.” Dixen ably portrays the health care industry with its bureaucracy, ass kissing and meetings held “to arrive at the conclusions that had been created by upper management prior to the meeting,” while convincing the reader of Mik’s genuine concern for her patients. Dixen has some fresh ideas here—such as an unusual kink involved in the murder case—and a punchy, brisk writing style to go with it (sometimes too reliant on choppy sentence fragments for tone). However, in the end, the solution appears to Mikelena in such a simple, straightforward way that it lacks much suspense or danger. It feels as though there should be more to the story, not least since Mik, even though she narrates the book, is hard to get to know.
An entertaining if anticlimactic murder mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1300002840
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.
The dramatic conclusion to the trilogy about two New England crime families begun in City on Fire (2022) and City of Dreams (2023).
Near the end of his journey, multimillionaire Danny Ryan watches a casino implode in a mushroom cloud of dust and muses about his life’s implosions: “The cancer that killed his wife, the depression that destroyed his love, the moral rot that took his soul.” Danny is from Providence, Rhode Island, and desperately tried to leave his criminal life behind him. But using a ton of ill-gotten gains, he invests heavily in Las Vegas properties. Congress is conducting an investigation into gambling that could destroy his casino business and even land him in jail. An FBI agent plans to take Danny down for major sins he’d like to repent for. Meanwhile, can he make peace with his enemies? Nope, doesn’t look like it. Even if the parties involved want to put the past behind them, the trouble is that they don’t trust each other. Is Vern Winegard setting Dan up? Is Dan setting Vern up? “Trust? Trust is children waiting for Santa Claus.” So what could have been a “Kumbaya,” nobody-wants-to-read-this story turns into a grisly bloodletting filled with language that would set Sister Mary Margaret’s wimple on fire—figuratively speaking, as she’s not in the book. But the Catholic reference is appropriate: Two of the many colorful characters of ill repute are known as the Altar Boys, serving “Last Communion” to their victims. On the law-abiding side and out of the line of fire is an ex-nun-turned-prosecutor nicknamed Attila the Nun, who’s determined to bring justice for a gory matricide. (Rhode Island really had such a person, by the way.) Finally, the prose is just fun: A friend warns Dan about Allie Licata: “In a world of sick fucks, even the sick fucks think Licata’s a sick fuck.” A couple of things to note: This not only ends the trilogy, but it also closes out the author’s career, as he has said he’ll write no more novels.
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780063079472
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
PROFILES
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
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