A gripping, entertaining mystery bolstered by spooky ambiance.
An inspector investigating the murder of an American in Patagonia, Chile, isn’t short on suspects or motives in Bragg’s debut novel.
When mountaineer Todd Miller winds up dead with an ice ax between his shoulders, Chilean police inspector Juan Antonio Paz gets his very first murder case. Todd’s climbing companions are, of course, the first to come under suspicion. After all, Todd’s girlfriend, Zoe, was a former lover of one of them. Todd had also banked a sizable stash of money that his pals apparently didn’t know about. But even in the remote village of Puerto Verde, other potential murderers aren’t in short supply. Later, another body is found, unmistakably killed with an ice ax. The novel has a superb protagonist with a riveting back story. Paz specializes in financial crimes, but his previous case brought down his boss’s politician friend, and so his subsequent transfer to “the far south” is clearly a punishment. Regardless, he excels at his introductory homicide, re-examining evidence and constantly interrogating people, resulting in a slew of reasons why anyone would want Todd dead—as well as some red herrings. But what really sets Bragg’s novel apart is its ominous setting. Puerto Verde seems secluded from the rest of the world. In one scene, Paz is caught in the rain, which turns to snow and then into a whiteout. The wind, too, is relentless, always making its presence known even when characters are safely inside. Bragg amps up his tale when a plane attempts to land on a runway, leading to a crash and explosion; with secrets from Todd’s group as well as from villagers; and a hint of a possible romance between Paz and Deputy Investigator Luisa Arce Gonzalez. There’s also scorching prose, as in Paz’s phone conversation with his judge uncle: “Two men—one old, one in his prime—connected by wire and silence and memory, both lost in thoughts of the past.”
A gripping, entertaining mystery bolstered by spooky ambiance.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9964529-0-8
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Backroad Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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