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
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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