Just the thing for fans who want to hear Justice reading extended passages from Deep Background at bookstores, including an...
Disgraced journalist Benjamin Justice, who treats so many of his cases (Rhapsody in Blood, 2006, etc.) as if they’re all about him, finally gets one that is.
Long before he returned his Pulitzer for fabricating information in an AIDS feature, Benjamin Justice had already made news as the 17-year-old who shot his father to death when he caught him raping Benjamin’s sister. Now he’s written Deep Background, a memoir that lays bare the most unsavory facts of his life. But evidently not bare enough for everyone. Justice’s longtime professional rival, bulldog freelance reporter Cathryn Conroy, is sniffing around every source in West Hollywood in an attempt to tarnish Justice even further. Never-been actor Jason Holt is sending Justice vicious anonymous postcards and following them up with nasty phone calls. And a skinhead biker is stalking Justice, lurking outside his meetings and sitting in his restored Mustang but mysteriously refusing to attack him, even when Justice, always ready to get physical, throws the first punch. Justice’s attempts to look beyond his budding romance with ex-priest Ismael Aragon to the trouble his book has stirred up eventually reopen the case of an accidental death ten years ago, but the mystery is so perfunctory, transparent and poorly integrated that it’s much less interesting than Justice’s endless struggle with the demons from his past.
Just the thing for fans who want to hear Justice reading extended passages from Deep Background at bookstores, including an audience limited to a single dozing homeless man who provokes deep sympathy.Pub Date: Dec. 9, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-34148-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2008
A delightful debut whodunit written with abundant wit and flair. Pray for a series to follow.
An affluent 19th-century wife and aspiring sleuth perseveres in the face of police skepticism to probe a series of suspicious deaths in Cracow.
A provocative prologue introduces an anonymous killer sneaking away after examining a frail corpse. The year is 1893, and restless Zofia Turbotyńska struggles, because of her provincial roots, to be accepted in Cracow high society. Keeping an efficient household for her husband, esteemed medical professor Ignacy Turbotyński doesn’t satisfy her. So she undertakes various projects to occupy her time and prove her worth. When her cook, Franciszka, asks for time off to visit her grandmother at Helcel House, Zofia decides to solicit the residents for donations to a charity raffle she’s organizing for the benefit of scrofulous children. The benevolent nuns who run the house are receptive. On her initial visit, Zofia notices a bit of a stir over Mrs. Mohr, a resident who’s gone missing. Her reading of Poe surely has an effect on her, for when she visits Helcel House again, Zofia takes the initiative to question the staff about the still-missing resident. Strangely invigorated, she undertakes a search of the premises and discovers Mrs. Mohr’s body hidden under a blanket in the attic. The consensus is a fatal fall while wandering. Zofia is not so sure. When another Helcel resident is found murdered, Zofia alone links the two deaths and doggedly proceeds to investigate. In a nod to Victorian convention, Szymiczkowa (the pseudonym of partners Jacek Dehnel and Piotr Tarczyński) begins each chapter with a wry summary of what’s to come.
A delightful debut whodunit written with abundant wit and flair. Pray for a series to follow.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-27424-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Charming characters, information on book restoration, and plenty of angst and spycraft do not quite make up for the mundane...
A honeymoon, a rare book, and a past history of spying create a volatile mix.
On her last day in Paris, bookbinder and restorer Brooklyn Wainwright (Buried in Books, 2018, etc.), honeymooning in France with her security-expert husband, former spy Derek Stone, buys Derek a copy of The Spy Who Loved Me as a wedding gift. Soon thereafter, she spots Derek talking to someone who seems to be an old friend and notices a man in a hoodie watching them both. Both Derek and his friend, ex-colleague Ned Davies, shrug the watcher off. Back in their San Francisco loft, Brooklyn discovers that her inexpensive purchase is worth over $7,000, and Derek finds his business in turmoil over a troublemaking employee. A visit to SPECTRE, a shop that sells books and surveillance equipment and includes a cafe and escape rooms, gives Derek the idea of using its features to build trust among his squabbling employees. Owen Gibbons, another former colleague, who owns SPECTRE, asks Brooklyn to lend her newfound book for his anniversary celebration and assures her that his top-drawer security will keep it safe. They also meet Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, and Drummer Girl, a group of young writers who hang out in the cafe. The snake in the office is Lark, a beautiful but evil woman who hates Brooklyn for marrying Derek. Everyone but Lark enjoys the escape room experience. Each room has a different theme and is filled with clues that participants must use in order to escape in the time allowed. The plot turns deadly when someone breaks into SPECTRE, attempting to steal the book, and kills Tailor, who’s working late. The whole episode is caught on tape, but the well-disguised killer can’t be identified. Meanwhile, a note from Ned that accurately predicts his own murder suggests that Derek look for a list of names hidden in Brooklyn’s book, one of them Ned’s killer.
Charming characters, information on book restoration, and plenty of angst and spycraft do not quite make up for the mundane plot.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-49140-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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