A somber but thoroughly gripping detective story and an extraordinary villain.
In this debut thriller, a former actor turned sleuth searches for a serial murderer whose victims may point to the private eye himself as the killer’s ultimate goal.
Will Spire had once been Will Wallace, his stage name years ago when he was playing Dr. Steve Scott on a soap opera. Now a licensed private investigator, he agrees to help his ex-wife, Stacey, whose movie-producer boyfriend, Bob Bayloff, is missing. Will unfortunately finds his body, and the subsequent discovery of Bob’s agent, Alfred Green, killed in a similar manner, suggests an apparent link. But the scene of a third murder includes Will’s headshot near the victim, an obvious taunt and a possible threat against the gumshoe. This puts to the top of the suspect list Bud Williams, aka Blue, a sex offender Will aided in capturing and who, due to a mix-up at the prison, was just released. The FBI enters the investigation, while Stacey’s sudden abduction only intensifies Will’s hunt for Blue. The PI’s friend, LAPD Detective Dan Patrick, and his partner, Joe Dolen, are also on the case but may not be convinced that Blue’s their culprit. Someone’s keeping Stacey alive (for now), but Will and the detectives surely don’t have long to track her down. Bakke’s dark and often violent thriller centers much of the story on tortured characters, from the murderer (sometimes in the process of killing) to one or more of Blue’s fellow patients at an institution where he once stayed. Even Will’s first-person voice lingers on the seedier side of sunny California or glamorous Hollywood: he ponders a death in LA traffic, an accident that would merely incite commuters (“How dare he die while I’m trying to get home!”). Though some readers will guess the killer’s ultimate reveal, it’s still riveting as Will pieces together the evidence (and catches at least one beatdown), while a spotlight on the killer’s psyche (via an unnerving perspective) is equally captivating and horrifying.
A somber but thoroughly gripping detective story and an extraordinary villain.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-85408-2
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Arctic Night Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
