A dour but absorbing story about avaricious and disreputable characters.
A reformed convict aids law enforcement in a world teeming with corruption and moral ambiguity in Kyzer’s grim sequel to Brutus Nation (2016).
Kerry Douglas won’t have to serve the remaining four years of his prison stint thanks to the Athenian Union Interior Ministry, which has allowed him to join the United Vigilance. As part of this law enforcement group, he has free rein to make a “comprehensive strike against the criminal element.” He goes after the people who supply Athenia City’s citizens with the illegal drug NRG. Some unscrupulous types in his organization, however, have ensured that some NRG pills are coated with a lethal substance; this makes selling them a more serious crime, which allows law enforcement to hit drug pushers even harder. Elsewhere in the city, an owner of the professional sports team the Athenia City Grunting Hogs has a mysterious scheme underway involving the team’s co-owner, a drug lord who’s attempting to go legit. In addition, a local bookie chain is letting gamblers bet with home equity; those who lose too often also lose their houses. This particular venture, by the story’s end, links several characters’ stories together. Although Kerry’s battle against NRG ultimately turns explosive, Kyzer’s novel centers more on noir style than action. The narrative shifts through an impressive number of dubious characters, from a lawyer who works for a seasoned criminal to a couple of gambler friends roped in by the bookie chain. The author primarily establishes the cast members through dialogue—crisp exchanges packed with slang, offensive jabs, and humor, including numerous references to caffeinated energy drinks. There are a few scenes with multiple characters that are confusing and hard to follow due to the author’s minimal use of dialogue tags. The final act is somewhat predictable, but it resolves multiple subplots in a way that’s both satirical and convincing.
A dour but absorbing story about avaricious and disreputable characters.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5255-8082-6
Page Count: 174
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Everything you’d expect from Grisham, and this time something more.
After more than three decades of producing bestselling legal thrillers, Grisham tries his hand at a whodunit.
Eleanor Barnett wants Simon Latch to write her a will. That’s pretty much his job description, since practicing law in Braxton, Virginia, for 18 years hasn’t given him much opportunity to spread his wings. But the case of Netty, as she insists he call her, is different. She’s an 85-year-old widow whose second husband, Harry Korsak, left her with something like $20 million in cash and securities. She has a pair of stepsons, Clyde and Jerry Korsak, she’s determined to disinherit. And she already has a will, a document Wally Thackerman drafted a few weeks ago that basically allowed him, as Simon soon discovers, to pillage her estate. So instead of following his usual procedure and asking his longtime secretary, Matilda Clark, to type out the will, Simon types it himself and has it witnessed without saying anything to her. Of course he’d never do what Wally Thackerman did, but given his poverty, his gambling addiction, and his estrangement from his wife, Paula, whose income is a lot more stable than his own, he wouldn’t mind drawing just a bit on Netty’s wealth. As it happens, his new client turns out to be more trouble than she’s worth, maybe even more trouble than she would’ve been worth to Wally. And when she ends up dying, her death is swiftly identified as murder, with every indication that Simon killed her himself. The whodunit is unremarkable, but Grisham handles the legal complexities of the case with professional finesse and adds a wonderfully poignant portrait of a nothingburger lawyer trying his best to keep things more or less legal.
Everything you’d expect from Grisham, and this time something more.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780385548984
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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