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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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