A well-written, thoughtful mystery with humor, sturdy lead characters, and a surprising wrap-up.
This sequel finds a retired Tennessee detective pondering the suspicious death of a locally prominent artist, stirring up an investigation that exposes the dark underbelly of the international art market.
The lifeless body of quirky and evidently much hated artist Bechman Fitzwallington, ne Billy Wayne Farmer, is discovered by a neighbor in Nashville. Police Detective Hardy Seltzer is called to the scene. He observes the corpse, which “lay uncovered on a brass-framed bedstead. The hands were folded across a generous expanse of stomach, and a hint of a smile tugged at the corners of a mouth that all but disappeared beneath a big bush of ivory-white moustache.” There are no overt signs of foul play. Seltzer figures the older guy probably died of natural causes. The political higher-ups, anxious to promote Nashville’s burgeoning reputation as a center for the visual arts, are pushing the detective to declare that there is no case to investigate. But as Seltzer interviews the eccentric assortment of people in Fitzwallington’s inner circle (including his daughter, SalomeMe), he discovers there are many who had more than enough reason to welcome the unpleasant man’s demise. Seltzer shares his vague feelings of discontent with his friend Shane Hadley—affectionately referred to as “Sherlock Shane Hadley” by those who know of his famed investigative acumen. Shane’s storied career was derailed when a bullet landed in his thoracic spinal cord, leaving him restricted to a wheelchair. A devotee of Holmes’ deductive methodology—as well as of his own illegally imported special Oxford Lincoln College sherry—Shane still has the intellectual heft to helm an entertaining series that depends on cerebral rather than physical challenges. Brigham ensures that readers keep track of his wide array of strong characters by repeatedly using their full names throughout the amusing and unpredictable novel, lending a stylized background cadence to the polished prose. And he adds an extra level of intrigue by intertwining local personal grievances and the machinations of some elite New York art dealers with the “aging brain” research being conducted by Shane’s wife, Dr. Katya Karpov.
A well-written, thoughtful mystery with humor, sturdy lead characters, and a surprising wrap-up.Pub Date: May 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-944962-67-8
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Secant Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.
Travel writer Lo Blacklock is back. Ten years after the events of The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), she's attending the opening of a lavish Swiss hotel when, once again, a mystery intervenes.
A decade after she almost died on a luxury cruise and ended up exposing a murder plot, travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock is trying to get back into the business post-Covid-19 and post–maternity leave. When she's invited to an exclusive hotel launch by the Leidmann Group on the shores of Switzerland’s gorgeous Lake Geneva, her supportive husband, Judah, insists that she should go, and her old boss, Rowan, says that if Lo can score an interview with the reclusive Marcus Leidmann, she’ll publish it in the Financial Times. Leaving Judah and the kids at home in New York, Lo is surprised by a last-minute upgrade to first class, which kicks off her trip in style. The hotel is appropriately awe-inspiring in both scenic location and effortless luxury, and Lo starts to put the memories of last trip’s trauma behind her, thinking that maybe she can just enjoy the experience this time. But then, at dinner, she's surprised to see at least three guests who were also on that original cruise, and when she finds a mysterious note in her room saying "Please come to suite 11 as soon as possible," she gets another shock. To quote William Faulkner, she realizes that “the past is never dead,” and soon Lo is careening across Europe on her way to England, only to find herself embroiled in another murder. The back half of the novel offers her the opportunity to continue her amateur sleuthing, and while she avoids much of the physical danger that plagued her on the cruise a decade ago, she is in very real legal trouble. This is the prolific Ware’s first sequel, and it's fun to spend time with Lo again, as she's both savvy and kindhearted. Unfortunately, the mystery is not as atmospheric and gripping as usual for Ware, though even a lesser Ruth Ware thriller is still worth reading.
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781668025628
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
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