A complex but diverting whodunit.
In this thriller, a British author realizes that some recent homicides are comparable to the ones in his latest novel.
Kenneth Sorin is a former medicinal chemistry research scientist who’s successfully transitioned to a writing career. He consequently has no time to work as an “amateur detective” and assist his Uncle Ash, an inspector. But Ash’s newest case has all the makings of a fictional murder mystery. A serial killer is murdering local female university students with a modus operandi that includes removing the left eye and replacing it with an emerald. In fact, these homicides share similarities with Kenneth’s manuscript, tentatively titled Mr. Maniac, including that the fictional victims’ initials in the book are the same as those of the dead students. A doctor diagnosed Kenneth with schizoid personality disorder at the age of 17. Unlike schizophrenia, people with this disorder don’t lose touch with reality. Still, after Kenneth receives a phone call from a woman who, it turns out, died a decade ago, he suspects that he actually may be the killer. He searches for patterns among the homicides and victims to unmask the true murderer and soon believes someone is watching him or possibly breaking into his house. Fundin’s (Disorder, 2019) entertaining tale offers several intriguing subplots. One features store owner Philip Worthington, a suspect in at least two of the murders, whose wife, Amy, has caught on to his philandering. These storylines help maintain a persistent momentum as well as bolster the mystery, especially when a subplot’s relevance to the main tale isn’t immediately apparent. Nice touches along the way enliven the story: Kenneth’s romantic interest, Jeanne Russell, is harboring a secret, and he has dealings with SCDX, an enigmatic police branch that’s so covert no one knows the acronym’s meaning. As the narrative advances, the protagonist puts together a theory on the killer’s method that’s surprisingly complicated. This fuels a final act that’s primarily Kenneth’s elucidations, and though it runs too long, it’s comprehensible and ultimately satisfying.
A complex but diverting whodunit.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9999817-2-3
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Asioni Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Steinbeck's peculiarly intense simplicity of technique is admirably displayed in this vignette — a simple, tragic tale of Mexican little people, a story retold by the pearl divers of a fishing hamlet until it has the quality of folk legend. A young couple content with the humble living allowed them by the syndicate which controls the sale of the mediocre pearls ordinarily found, find their happiness shattered when their baby boy is stung by a scorpion. They dare brave the terrors of a foreign doctor, only to be turned away when all they can offer in payment is spurned. Then comes the miracle. Kino find a great pearl. The future looks bright again. The baby is responding to the treatment his mother had given. But with the pearl, evil enters the hearts of men:- ambition beyond his station emboldens Kino to turn down the price offered by the dealers- he determines to go to the capital for a better market; the doctor, hearing of the pearl, plants the seed of doubt and superstition, endangering the child's life, so that he may get his rake-off; the neighbors and the strangers turn against Kino, burn his hut, ransack his premises, attack him in the dark — and when he kills, in defense, trail him to the mountain hiding place- and kill the child. Then- and then only- does he concede defeat. In sorrow and humility, he returns with his Juana to the ways of his people; the pearl is thrown into the sea.... A parable, this, with no attempt to add to its simple pattern.
Pub Date: Nov. 24, 1947
ISBN: 0140187383
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1947
Back to a Jurassic Park sideshow for another immensely entertaining adventure, this fashioned from the loose ends of Crichton's 1990 bestseller. Six years after the lethal rampage that closed the primordial zoo offshore Costa Rica, there are reports of strange beasts in widely separated Central American venues. Intrigued by the rumors, Richard Levine, a brilliant but arrogant paleontologist, goes in search of what he hopes will prove a lost world. Aided by state-of- the-art equipment, Levine finds a likely Costa Rican outpostbut quickly comes to grief, having disregarded the warnings of mathematician Ian Malcolm (the sequel's only holdover character). Malcolm and engineer Doc Thorne organize a rescue mission whose ranks include mechanical whiz Eddie Carr and Sarah Harding, a biologist doing fieldwork with predatory mammals in East Africa. The party of four is unexpectedly augmented by two children, Kelly Curtis, a 13-year-old "brainer," and Arby Benton, a black computer genius, age 11. Once on the coastal island, the deliverance crew soon links up with an unchastened Levine and locates the hush-hush genetics lab complex used to stock the ill- fated Jurassic Park with triceratops, tyrannosaurs, velociraptors, etc. Meanwhile, a mad amoral scientist and his own group, in pursuit of extinct creatures for biotech experiments, have also landed on the mysterious island. As it turns out, the prehistoric fauna is hostile to outsiders, and so the good guys as well as their malefic counterparts spend considerable time running through the triple-canopy jungle in justifiable terror. The far-from-dumb brutes exact a gruesomely heavy toll before the infinitely resourceful white-hat interlopers make their final breakout. Pell-mell action and hairbreadth escapes, plus periodic commentary on the uses and abuses of science: the admirable Crichton keeps the pot boiling throughout.
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-41946-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995
© 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.
