A fast-paced, engagingly written mystery.
In Cain’s final installment of a crime-fiction trilogy, a judge’s sudden, violent death rattles the local political establishment.
Jason Olyphant, a skateboarder in Washington state who’s notorious for his reckless stunts, becomes a murder suspect after a collision that apparently claims the life of Judge Alvin Hansen, a pillar of Hardin County’s legal community. Jason flees the scene and races to see attorney John Abel, who initially believes that Judge Hansen’s death was a senseless but unforeseen outcome (“Why did you run? It sounds like an accident,” he tells Jason). Veteran homicide detective Laconia Jones, however, feels that certain details of the scene are odd—such as the extra golf club in Judge Hansen’s golf bag. Abel begins raising some tough questions of his own, which lead him to suspect that Olyphant may have nothing to do with the judge’s demise. Many of the questions center on Judge Hansen’s record in office, particularly his ruling in favor of Mike Graham, a neighboring landowner who’d opposed a golf course as a flood-prone boondoggle, setting him on a collision course with Hardin County’s shadowy powers-that-be. What both men uncover initially points to more complicated motives of revenge and concealment. It’s a familiar mystery setup that requires fine storytelling to pull off, and Cain delivers in brisk, no-nonsense fashion. He also demonstrates a flair for snappy dialogue, whether he’s referencing a smile that “only a teacher’s pet could appreciate” or dishing up chilling insights into the mentality of murder: “There is more to killing than just the killing.” Another bold stroke is a revelation roughly halfway into the story, effectively transforming the tale from a whodunit to an old-school “howcatchem.” Some fans may dismiss this maneuver as a Columbo-style move, but Cain’s rapid-fire approach should be sufficient to overcome any objections.
A fast-paced, engagingly written mystery.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 9798481352763
Page Count: 372
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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