He doubtless was hoping, like his characters, for a best-seller, and he’ll probably succeed on these shores as well with...
A missing girl, small-town secrets and literary ambition drive this busy, entertaining debut thriller, already a best-seller in Europe.
Young author Marcus Goldman hopes his mentor, the famous American novelist Harry Quebert, can help with the writer’s block afflicting his sophomore effort. Then their 2008 reunion in Somerset, N.H., is disrupted by the discovery of the remains of Nola Kellergan, who was Harry’s very underage 15-year-old girlfriend at the time she disappeared in 1975. Dicker moves deftly between the two periods, as Harry is jailed for Nola’s murder and Marcus seeks to exonerate him by delving into and writing about the old case. The 1975 narrative forms a book within the one covering 2008 events. Dicker throws in digressions on boxing, swipes at the publishing trade and Harry’s 31 writing rules. Add a cast almost as corny as that of the board game Clue: There’s the wealthy bachelor and his horribly disfigured chauffeur, the Southern preacher who blasts music to mask a terrible noise, the timid cop infatuated with the former prom queen who loves the famous writer who adores, alas, the jailbait beauty. Ah, Nola: She’s sexy, devoted and resourceful before she’s buried with a manuscript of Harry’s best novel right where the gardeners, 33 years later, want to plant hydrangeas in his yard. Dicker keeps the prose simple and the pace snappy in a plot that winds up with more twists than a Twizzler. He might have done without the chauffeur’s grotesque speech impediment and the sitcom chats Marcus has with his meddlesome mom. Nola’s precociousness strains plausibility, and a demon ex machina out of Alabama is one twist too many—or maybe it’s Dicker enjoying himself too much.
He doubtless was hoping, like his characters, for a best-seller, and he’ll probably succeed on these shores as well with this sprawling, likable whodunit, obvious ballast for the summer’s beach totes.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-14-312668-3
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: He’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
© 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.
