A quirky, satisfying mystery that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next installment.
While searching for stolen artwork, an investigator uncovers a possible murder and political conspiracy in Freemartin’s enjoyable sci-fi mystery debut.
On an Earth-like planet called Astrogea, people are tattooed at birth with their zodiac signs, which dictate how they look, where they live and with whom they associate. This categorization has resulted in some hostilities between people of different signs or groups of signs, but no one is more disdained than the Cuspians—those born between signs who don’t strongly identify with either. Astrogean private investigator Margo Ramm is summoned by Dermot Justice, a wealthy, ailing politician, to find some priceless pieces of art that have gone missing from his home. Margo arrives to find his vast villa full of potential suspects: Justice’s ill-tempered second wife; his stern personal physician; his self-important business partner and the partner’s supermodel daughter; a niece and nephew with checkered pasts; and the musician husband of Justice’s deceased daughter. As Margo investigates, she begins to doubt the houseguests’ supposed concern for Justice’s health. She also finds that there may have been greater crimes committed than art theft—perhaps even a murder. Imperfect and likable, Margo was abandoned at birth and raised in an orphanage, as many Cuspians are in this world. She suffers from bouts of self-doubt but proves to be strong, intelligent and capable. The odd cast of suspects adds to the tension as their shifting loyalties make it difficult to point out the guilty party. Plot twists and unanswered questions abound while the story builds to an action-packed climax in which all the characters are brought together at once. At the end of this volume, the first in a planned series, the author strikes just the right balance, with the threads of the primary mysteries sewn up but one unsolved mystery lingering amid hints of growing political and social unrest in Astrogea. Undoubtedly, there’s room to explore some intriguing stories in future volumes.
A quirky, satisfying mystery that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next installment.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 231
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A new series starts off with a bang.
A queen and her young daughter are forced to separate and go into hiding when a corrupt politician tries to take over the kingdom.
Queen Cressa of Weirandale is worried about her 8-year-old daughter, the “princella” Cerúlia. The people of Weirandale worship a water spirit, Nargis, who grants each queen a special gift called a Talent. Cressa herself is able to meddle with memories, for example, and her mother possessed supernatural strategic abilities that served her well in battle. Cerúlia, however, appears to have none, because surely her insistence that she can talk to animals is only her young imagination running wild. When Cerúlia’s many pets warn her about assassins creeping into the royal chambers, the girl is able to save herself and her mother. Cressa uses her Talent, which actually extends to forcing anyone to tell her the truth, to root out traitors among the aristocracy, led by the power-hungry Lord Matwyck. Fearing for her daughter’s life and her own, Cressa takes Cerúlia and flees. Thinking Cerúlia will be safer away from her mother, Cressa takes the girl to a kind peasant family and adjusts their memories so they believe Cerúlia is their adopted daughter. Kozloff’s debut is the first of four Nine Realms books, and Tor plans to publish them over just four months. Luckily, the series opener is a strong start, so readers will be grateful for the short wait before Book 2. Kozloff sets a solid stage with glimpses into other characters and nations while keeping the book together with a clear, propulsive plot.
A new series starts off with a bang.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-16854-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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