The rabbit-hole world Bannister evokes is so relentlessly and convincingly sordid that her quietly hopeful ending seems...
Bannister takes a break from her Brodie Farrell/Daniel Hood series (Breaking Faith, 2005, etc.) for an authentic London nightmare: a father’s desperate search for the daughter who vanished six years ago.
There was no reason the day of Cassie Schofield’s clarinet exam should have been any different from any other. But after her father, a Birmingham architect, dropped her off in front of her music school, she seems to have been swallowed up. Laurence and Jan Schofield have had six years since then to wonder whether she’s dead or alive, whether she ran off on a whim or planned to escape in advance, whether she left willingly or under duress. So when their son Tom glimpses someone he thinks might be his sister on a documentary about the London homeless, it’s not surprising that Jan can’t face the possibility that her daughter is still alive. “I tried love,” she spits at her husband. “See where it got me!” Laurence, unable to let go of this last hope, follows the trail to London, where he swiftly learns just how mean the streets can be. Descending into the bowels of the underworld called the Tinderbox, he finds predatory kids, ruthless street gangs fighting deadly turf wars and dangers he literally can’t comprehend. Redemption comes from a wholly unexpected quarter.
The rabbit-hole world Bannister evokes is so relentlessly and convincingly sordid that her quietly hopeful ending seems nothing short of miraculous.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-7278-6387-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and...
In Pinborough’s (Behind Her Eyes, 2018, etc.) twisty, decade-spanning, multivoiced thriller, everyone has secrets: teenager Ava; her mom, Lisa; and Lisa’s best friend, Marilyn.
On the surface, all three women fulfill the roles expected of them, and they support and love one another, but they don’t truly know each other. Ava, a competitive swimmer, is finishing up her exams and sneaking around with her first boyfriend while overly protective mom Lisa is about to clinch a big contract at work—and maybe even go on a date with a handsome millionaire client. Marilyn has been dealing with headaches at home, but she’s still game for a shopping trip to outfit Lisa for that big date. Soon, however, they will discover that someone else in their lives has a secret much darker than any they carry. This person is a murderer who is stalking a childhood friend who, they believe, betrayed their deepest trust. There are a lot of plot twists and reveals within the novel, some of which are surprising, some of which are expected. Pinborough weaves several different time periods and several different narrative voices to create layers of character and conflict, but the characters are types often found in psychological thrillers, and while their problems are often relatable, at least at first, they aren’t particularly engaging. It’s clear which decisions, and which silences, are going to get them into trouble, and yet, as people do, they carry on anyway. The one element that sets Pinborough’s novel apart from the slew of similar thrillers is the emphasis on female empowerment and the power of female relationships. These women need no one to save them, no knights in shining armor or handsome cops. As Marilyn succinctly puts it, “Fuck. That. Shit.”
Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will find this comfortingly familiar despite (or maybe because of?) the shocks and turns along the way.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-285679-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
This one has it all: sexual predation, financial skulduggery, reluctant heroism, even the power of social media.
A compelling, complex thriller as modern as tomorrow.
Mina (The Long Drop, 2017, etc.) leaves historical Glasgow and sets this crackling tale in the very moment. Sophie Bukaran is living as Anna McDonald; she's hidden herself in Glasgow, in marriage to a lawyer, in being mother to two girls. Then one November morning, between episodes of a true-crime podcast called Death and the Dana, her life "explode[s]." Her best friend, Estelle, is at the door, and Anna's husband reveals that he and Estelle are lovers and they're leaving with the girls. Anna considers suicide, but the podcast distracts her. Leon Parker and his family have died aboard the Dana, and the ship's cook has been convicted. The podcast asserts that the cook could not be guilty and the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide committed by Parker. But Anna knew Leon Parker and feels he could not be the culprit, so she decides to try to learn more about his fate. When Estelle's anorexic and feckless husband, Fin, a minor rock-and-roll celebrity, appears at her door, he is caught up in her decision, and they eventually create a companion podcast that details their explorations. But in the process Anna and Fin are photographed and the pictures posted online, so Anna's quest becomes entwined with threats to Sophie Bukaran's life. Years earlier Sophie was raped by members of a beloved football team, and her accusations threatened the team's reputation and value. When the only corroborator of her testimony was silenced, Sophie was discredited in the usual manner: Her morals were questionable, she was possibly drunk, she was seeking money. Dismissed and subjected to public vilification, Sophie disappeared. But a new witness has come forward and could confirm Sophie's accusations, and her reappearance again threatens a financial empire. As Fin's podcast becomes wildly popular and he and Anna begin to unravel the mystery of Leon Parker's death, the assassins seeking Sophie close in.
This one has it all: sexual predation, financial skulduggery, reluctant heroism, even the power of social media.Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-52850-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
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.
