A quick-hit international adventure led by a Yank full of bravado.
In this fourth installment of Yocum’s thriller series, a former CIA operative comes out of retirement to track down a missing undercover agent in Australia.
Former CIA investigator Dennis Cunningham is enjoying early retirement in Western Australia with his girlfriend, Judy White, an Australian Federal Police investigator. One night, at a supposedly social dinner, Judy’s superior offers Dennis a job: $500,000 to find David Chu, a missing Chinese agent whom Australian intelligence had been keeping tabs on. Dennis is reluctant but decides that he can’t turn down good money, and he stipulates that Judy must be his intermediary. The investigation starts off rocky when Dennis senses Australian agents aren’t telling the whole truth, and he doesn’t like being handled.The situation darkens when he receives a threatening note and is beaten by a mysterious assailant in a parking lot after meeting with an old CIA friend. As Dennis traipses across Australia and even to the States to sniff out leads, he must temper his brashness with caution, as it turns out that finding Chu may be just the tip of an iceberg of conspiracies. Yocum’s series entry, following Valley of Spies (2019), freshens the American thriller genre with an Australian tinge. For instance, Dennis’ no-holds-barred approach satisfyingly contrasts with that of his by-the-book Australian contacts. Judy is also sharply drawn as a smart, underestimated cop, and a harrowing side plot involving her son, Trevor, shows her vulnerability. Much like Dennis, Yocum’s prose is straightforward, though some of the dialogue is awkwardly expository: “Dennis, would you stop punishing yourself about the past with your daughter? Your wife died many years ago. Let’s not open that can of worms.” Dennis’ virile-hero bit also strikes a sour note sometimes, with multiple mentions of how “attractive” he finds a colleague. Still, it’s an entertaining globe-trotter of a plot, complete with stakeouts, standoffs, and acerbic banter: “No, I did not beat the shit out of you in the parking lot,” says one of Dennis’ Aussie colleagues at one point, “But I wish the hell I had.”
A quick-hit international adventure led by a Yank full of bravado.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2022
ISBN: 979-8985534528
Page Count: 410
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
More style than substance.
Michaelides takes a literary turn in his latest novel, employing an unreliable narrator, the structure of classical drama, and a self-conscious eye to dismantling the locked-room mystery.
The novel starts off with a murder, and with seven people trapped on an isolated Greek island lashed by a "wild, unpredictable Greek wind." The narrator, soon established as Elliot Chase, then zooms out to address the reader directly, introducing the players—most importantly movie star Lana Farrar. We meet her husband, Jason Miller, her son, Leo, and her friend Kate Crosby, a theater actress. We learn about her rise to fame and her older first husband, Otto Krantz, a Hollywood producer. We learn about Kate’s possibly stalling career and Leo’s plan to apply to acting schools against his mother’s wishes. We learn about Jason’s obsession with guns. And in fragments and shards, we learn about Elliot: his painful childhood; his May–September relationship with an older female writer, now dead; his passion for the theater, where he learned “to change everything about [himself]” to fit in. Though he isn't present in every scene, he conveys each piece of the story leading up to the murder as if he were an omniscient narrator, capable of accessing every character's interior perspective. When he gets to the climax, there is, indeed, a shooting. There is, indeed, a motive. And there is, of course, a twist. The atmosphere of the novel, set mostly on this wild Greek island, echoes strongly the classical tragedies of Greece. The characters are types. The emotions are operatic. And the tragedy, of course, leads us to question the idea of fate. Michaelides seems also to be dipping into the world of Edgar Allan Poe, offering an unreliable narrator who feels more like a literary exercise. As an exploration of genre, it’s really quite fascinating. As a thriller, it’s not particularly surprising.
More style than substance.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781250758989
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An often engrossing crime epic about a mobster family’s intricate machinations.
A novel that spans a decade in the lives of an organized crime family.
In a story set in 1973 in small-town Wheeling, West Virginia, author Florio depicts a tightly knit clan struggling in an era when the Italian American mob is proliferating across the country. The author expertly sets the novel’s grim, menacing tone early on with the coldblooded contract killing of someone who paid for betrayal and treachery in blood. Protagonist Johnny Mesagne is described as someone who is “handsome, in a hoodlum sort of way,” and who’s a divorced father to estranged adult son J.J. Jenkins. Six years have passed since Johnny was a part of Wheeling’s mob faction led by kingpin Paul Verbania. His abrupt departure from the group has caused many changes in his life and in his circle of friends. Meanwhile, J.J. finds his father’s former mob involvement to be intriguing, and he decides to dip his foot into the life himself, but he does so in reckless, thrill-seeking ways, such as romancing Verbania’s girlfriend, Leslie Fitzpatrick, a deadly, impulsive move that plays out across the entire novel. Johnny’s never taken an interest in his only son until now, but he feels he must rescue him from a way of life in which people are sometimes “rubbed out.” The narrative volleys between 1963 and 1973, showing how Johnny moves up the Wheeling gang echelons and then abandons it all to live clean and manage a bar. He then works hard to shield his son from the mob’s nefarious influences. Ten years later, J.J.’s life is in danger. Is it too late for Johnny to save him?
Readers will find that this book is a distinct departure from Florio’s previous publications, which focused mainly on football commentary and history and drew from the author’s livelihood as a sportswriter, commentator, and television and radio show host. Although this story is built upon a well-worn crime-fiction premise, the author’s take is a refreshing one and incorporates notes of suspense, terror, family drama, and black humor. He draws on true events in a fictional story that has a lot of moving parts, but they all manage to coalesce into a thrilling reading experience. Florio’s cast of characters—some good, others much less so—are all crystal-clear in their intentions and demeanor, which makes the story a devilish indulgence. Tough-guy Bobby and Paul’s driver, Vinny, are superbly portrayed as bumbling henchmen with poor judgment; Vinny is introduced with the line, “How the fuck did you forget the silencers?” Fans of The Godfather and The Sopranos will recognize and appreciate the overtures that Florio makes on behalf of his creatively inspired mob family—particularly the central ordeal concerning Johnny and his son. Every stylistic nuance and dialogue inflection feels pitch-perfect, and every character is believably hypersensitive to law enforcement and the dire consequences of a botched job. The novel’s conclusion has a twist that’s truly a surprise.
An often engrossing crime epic about a mobster family’s intricate machinations.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: PFT Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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