A bloody, escapist thriller following a man with nothing to lose.
In D’Aquisto’s thriller, a retired cop goes head-to-head with brutal gangs in rural Sri Lanka.
Three years after retiring from the Seattle Police Department, detective-turned-private-investigator John Sandes finds himself on an extended vacation in Sri Lanka, where he spends the days swimming in the warm sea and sampling the local cuisine at beachside restaurants. On a drive between resort areas, he stops for lunch in what appears to be a sleepy town—one so small it’s not marked on his map—only to witness two men attack a woman with acid. After the police refuse to do anything about the incident (other than advise Sandes to leave the area), he learns that the town is hostage to two outlaw factions: a group of Australian drug smugglers and the Sri Lankan mob. Never one to let an injustice go unaddressed, Sandes finds and kills one of the woman’s attackers—a Sri Lankan mobster—earning him the respect of the Australians. He temporarily enters the protection of the Aussies, thus upsetting the town’s fragile truce. Disgusted by the murderous behavior of both groups, Sandes finds himself caught, perhaps fatally, between a rock and a hard place. If he wants to ever make it out of Sri Lanka alive, he’s going to have to shoot his way out. The point of view alternates between that of John and several supporting characters, but D’Aquisto’s no-frills prose is a constant: “As soon as I heard the bang, I bolted away,” narrates Sandes during a typical fracas. “I didn’t want to lose any time. I heard tons of gunshots. I knew there was a chance someone would shoot me in the back as I ran, but my hope was that the two gangs would be too busy shooting at each other to notice me.” Despite Sandes’s profession, the narrative does not involve much detecting, and the plot serves primarily to shuttle John between shootouts. With its tropical Sri Lankan setting, this will be a satisfying beach read for fans of 1980s action movies.
A bloody, escapist thriller following a man with nothing to lose.Pub Date: June 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781069287816
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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