A slow immersion into chaos that’s torture for the protagonist but sheer enjoyment for readers.
In Baskin’s debut thriller, a prison psychiatrist becomes a patsy for a white supremacist gang leader looking for a way out of jail.
Dr. Jojo Black sees his new job at Wampanoag State Hospital, run by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, as a definite challenge. He’d make more money in a private psychiatric practice, but he prefers working with criminals despite the fact that his first patient at WSH nearly attacks him for not providing him with oxycodone. Jojo’s predecessor boils the job down to separating the truly mentally ill inmates from those who are simply faking it, because the state hospital is considered a vacation compared with maximum security. Hard-to-read patient Lester Manson, leader of the white supremacy group White Dawn, resides in the high-security unit known as “the Shoe.” Jojo thinks that Lester seems “pleasant and calm,” contrary to his own boss’s warnings. But soon after Jojo settles into a routine and starts dating social worker Margot, the trouble begins. Lester persuades Margot to sneak him a cellphone, and he uses this criminal act to blackmail Jojo into doing his bidding. At first, the psychiatrist merely ensures that a few select inmates remain at the hospital. But as rumors of a gang war heat up (White Dawn vs. Los Reyes), some people outside WSH, including a U.S. Marshal, confront Jojo, convinced that he’s helping Lester plan a prison break. In the end, the psychiatrist may have to choose between telling the truth or aiding in Lester’s escape. Baskin’s novel has a worthy buildup before spinning off into a gleefully complex conspiracy. There are numerous characters with agendas: some want Lester free, some want him to stay right where he is, and others apparently want him dead. The tale is suspenseful right from the opening, which shows Jojo in the middle of a prison riot before flashing back to his relatable first-day jitters. Still, the book’s villain isn’t quite the mastermind that other characters make him out to be; Jojo’s boss, for example, asserts that Lester can get into a seasoned clinician’s head, but what he actually does is less manipulation than basic intimidation, sometimes involving physical threats. On the plus side, Jojo comes across as a smart man who, despite his stumbles, isn’t as naïve as some suggest.
A slow immersion into chaos that’s torture for the protagonist but sheer enjoyment for readers.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5347-0256-1
Page Count: 234
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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