A riveting but grim and unflinching tale of two assassins.
In this debut thriller, the head of a newly formed organized crime unit searches for killers after a mob-related act of vengeance ignites a series of murders.
Denny Pogue, a New York college professor driving to work, fatally hits a boy on a bicycle. But as the boy was the son of Jimmy Morretti, who runs a criminal empire, authorities suspect the worst when Pogue later turns up missing. Meanwhile, Ben Hawkins, a contractor who once tracked down fugitives for the FBI, becomes the head of the Organized Crime Task Force. Before Hawkins can delve into Morretti’s crimes, which soon include Pogue’s homicide, someone starts taking out members of the mobster’s crew. Unexpectedly, another string of murders may have ties to these homicides, as some of the victims are associated with “assassin bureaus.” The OCTF’s theory is that a second culprit is hunting the contract killer targeting Morretti’s men. So there’s a chance Pogue’s relatives are in danger, as Morretti may conclude they hired the first assassin. While Hawkins and his team hunt both killers, the second one is “particularly savage,” and innocents sadly die in all the chaos. And if the assassins realize the OCTF is on to them, they may go underground. Lavi certainly doesn’t pull any punches in his hard-hitting tale. The murders are plentiful and especially coldblooded when involving family members and witnesses. Furthering the somber tone are perspectives from both killers, who, as professionals, are frighteningly methodical. Nevertheless, Hawkins, despite ongoing troubles such as a taste for alcohol, is sympathetic: He has endearing conversations with his wife, Vanessa, and, as a Black man, is no stranger to racism. The story moves at a steady clip thanks to shifting locales in various United States cities and brutal, concise confrontations that occasionally spin off into gunfights or close combat.
A riveting but grim and unflinching tale of two assassins.Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4991-9103-5
Page Count: 338
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A weird, wild ride.
Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense.
Sager’s debut, Final Girls (2017), was fun and beautifully crafted. His most recent novels—Home Before Dark (2020) and Survive the Night (2021) —have been fun and a bit rickety. His new novel fits that mold. Narrator Casey Fletcher grew up watching her mother dazzle audiences, and then she became an actor herself. While she never achieves the “America’s sweetheart” status her mother enjoyed, Casey makes a career out of bit parts in movies and on TV and meatier parts onstage. Then the death of her husband sends her into an alcoholic spiral that ends with her getting fired from a Broadway play. When paparazzi document her substance abuse, her mother exiles her to the family retreat in Vermont. Casey has a dry, droll perspective that persists until circumstances overwhelm her, and if you’re getting a Carrie Fisher vibe from Casey Fletcher, that is almost certainly not an accident. Once in Vermont, she passes the time drinking bourbon and watching the former supermodel and the tech mogul who live across the lake through a pair of binoculars. Casey befriends Katherine Royce after rescuing her when she almost drowns and soon concludes that all is not well in Katherine and Tom’s marriage. Then Katherine disappears….It would be unfair to say too much about what happens next, but creepy coincidences start piling up, and eventually, Casey has to face the possibility that maybe some of the eerie legends about Lake Greene might have some truth to them. Sager certainly delivers a lot of twists, and he ventures into what is, for him, new territory. Are there some things that don’t quite add up at the end? Maybe, but asking that question does nothing but spoil a highly entertaining read.
A weird, wild ride.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18319-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.
The loss of her police officer father and the discovery of an abandoned car in a local lake raise chilling questions regarding a young woman’s family history.
When Hazel Sharp returns to her hometown of Mirror Lake, North Carolina, for her father’s memorial, she and the other townspeople are confronted by a challenging double whammy: As they’re grieving the loss of beloved longtime police officer Detective Perry Holt, a disturbing sight appears in the lake, whose waterline is receding because of an ongoing drought—an old, unidentifiable car, which has likely been lurking there for years. Hazel temporarily leaves her Charlotte-based building-renovation business in the capable hands of her partners and reconnects with her brothers, Caden and Gage; her Uncle Roy; her old fling and neighbor, Nico; and her schoolfriend, Jamie, now a mother and married to Caden. Tiny, relentless suspicions rise to the metaphorical surface along with that waterlogged vehicle: There have been a slew of minor break-ins; two people go missing; and then, a second abandoned car is discovered. The novel digs deeper into Hazel’s family history—her father was a widow when he married Hazel’s mother, who later left the family, absconding with money and jewels—and Miranda, a consummate professional when it comes to exposing the small community tensions that naturally arise when people live in close proximity for generations, exposes revelation after twisty revelation: “Everything mattered disproportionately in a small town. Your success, but also your failure. Everyone knows might as well have been our town motto.”
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781668010440
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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