A debut novel takes a definite stand on the nature-versus-nurture argument.
In his thriller, Bathgate comes down firmly on the side of nature. The villain in his story is born evil, the son of a violent criminal, and can’t overcome that, despite having a loving, if deeply scarred, mother. Jim Doyle grows up sheltered by his mother and other relatives. Still, because of his temper, people keep getting hurt around him. The Scotsman finds an appropriate outlet for his aggression by joining the Parachute Regiment. But trouble follows him, which inhibits his military career. Bathgate’s protagonist, Tom Mitchell, meets Jim after one such incident, when Tom is nearing the end of his hitch as a military policeman. Jim is badly injured following a bar altercation; one of the locals was killed. Tom suspects Jim, a karate expert, intentionally murdered the man, but the official ruling is self-defense. Tom leaves the military and sets up an investigative agency for businesses in his hometown of Edinburgh. He discovers that Jim has also left the service and moved there, starting his own karate studio. Suspicious of Jim, Tom looks him up: “Beneath the apparent shyness and reserve, Tom suspected that Doyle had a vicious temper and a propensity for violent behaviour.” Tom makes the mistake of introducing Jim to his younger sister, Margaret. But when Jim and Margaret draw closer, Tom has to find out the truth about this man. Bathgate has crafted an engrossing narrative that reveals how many people ultimately can be affected by one violent event. He effectively relates the histories of Tom and Jim to show how they became the men they are now. The author delivers well-constructed main characters in Jim, Tom, and Margaret. He illustrates how Jim just can’t resist the urges ingrained in him by his rapist father, despite his mother’s best intentions, and how Tom doggedly pursues the truth, in part to protect his sister. Some readers may place higher value on nurturing, but Bathgate effectively makes the argument that Jim was predestined to become a monster. The result is a chilling portrait of a predator.
A worthwhile examination of the evil that lurks beneath one man’s placid exterior.Pub Date: June 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5246-8257-6
Page Count: 242
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | THRILLER | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER
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Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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. 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Categories: GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | SUSPENSE
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