The erratic Mr. Sanders is at his tackiest here, hyping up this slow tale out of two borrowed, stale formulas. The plot formula is the old horror-movie one about the (secretly) mad scientist with the outwardly respectable laboratory-hospital in a scared, creepy little town. And the formula narrator-hero is our old friend, the hard-boiled detective, here in the uninspired person of Sam Todd, 32, field investigator for the Bingham Foundation—and weak imitator of Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer. Sam is assigned to get the inside story on Dr. T. G. Thorndecker, Nobel Prize winner, who wants a million-dollar Bingham grant to study the cause of aging in mammalian cells (or so he says). Thorndecker runs a lush rest home and adjoining research lab in upstate N.Y., so Sam is soon trying to get some gossip from the locals—who, except for old Al Coburn, have nothing but praise for dear Dr. T. And, though Sam's real suspicious, convinced that there are secrets a-lurking, he succumbs somewhat to Dr. T.'s incredible charisma—not to mention the charisma of the doc's sexy young wife (who's playing around with a local cop and others). But then Sam spots a patient being buried at midnight (yes, that old scene) and old Al Colburn turns up dead—so a late-night raid on the lab seems to be the only way to learn the truth. And as usual, the truth isn't shocking enough to warrant all that build-up; plus, in this case, it's medically unconvincing. Although Sanders pads like crazy—with Sam repeating his suspicions over and over, as well as with some divertingly vulgar sideshows—it's always apparent that this is a moderately lively genre pulp (far less fully developed than the author's Deadly Sin crime stories) masquerading as a best-seller. If not for the Sanders by-line, it wouldn't have a prayer.
Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1978
ISBN: 0425104303
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1978
With its flat, staccato tone and mournful mood, it’s almost as if the book itself were suffering from depression.
A young Philadelphia policewoman searches for her addicted sister on the streets.
The title of Moore’s (The Unseen World, 2016, etc.) fourth novel refers to “a long bright river of departed souls,” the souls of people dead from opioid overdoses in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington. The book opens with a long paragraph that's just a list of names, most of whom don’t have a role in the plot, but the last two entries are key: “Our mother. Our father.” As the novel opens, narrator Mickey Fitzpatrick—a bright but emotionally damaged single mom—is responding with her partner to a call. A dead girl has turned up in an abandoned train yard frequented by junkies. Mickey is terrified that it will be her estranged sister, Kacey, whom she hasn’t seen in a while. The two were raised by their grandmother, a cold, bitter woman who never recovered from the overdose death of the girls' mother. Mickey herself is awkward and tense in all social situations; when she talks about her childhood she mentions watching the other kids from the window, trying to memorize their mannerisms so she could “steal them and use them [her]self.” She is close with no one except her 4-year-old son, Thomas, whom she barely sees because she works so much, leaving him with an unenthusiastic babysitter. Opioid abuse per se is not the focus of the action—the book centers on the search for Kacey. Obsessed with the possibility that her sister will end up dead before she can find her, Mickey breaches protocol and makes a series of impulsive decisions that get her in trouble. The pace is frustratingly slow for most of the book, then picks up with a flurry of revelations and developments toward the end, bringing characters onstage we don’t have enough time to get to know. The narrator of this atmospheric crime novel has every reason to be difficult and guarded, but the reader may find her no easier to bond with than the other characters do.
With its flat, staccato tone and mournful mood, it’s almost as if the book itself were suffering from depression.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-54067-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A grim and unbearably tense debut chiller with an unexpected and utterly fitting finale.
A lonely British schoolteacher falls for an American man incarcerated for the murder of a young woman. What could possibly go wrong?
Samantha, 31, is still reeling from a bad breakup when she discovers Framing the Truth: The Murder of Holly Michaels, an 18-year-old true-crime documentary about the killing of a young girl by then-18-year-old Dennis Danson, aka the suspected Red River Killer, who’s still on death row in Florida’s Altoona Prison. Sam writes to Dennis, and soon they’re declaring their love for each other. Sam flies to the U.S. to meet him, and although they’re separated by plexiglass, she knows that she’s found the love of her life. The chirpy Carrie, who co-produced and directed the first documentary, is Sam’s guide while she’s there, and Sam accompanies her while they film a new series about Dennis, A Boy from Red River. Sam and Dennis quickly marry when new evidence comes to light and Dennis is exonerated and released. Amid a whirlwind of talk shows, celebrity attention, and the new series premiere, married life isn’t quite what Sam had hoped for: intimacy is nonexistent, the already self-loathing Sam feels unloved and unwanted, and the appearance of Dennis’ clingy childhood friend Lindsay Durst sends Sam into a jealous fit. After Dennis’ father dies, they move into Dennis’ childhood home, and Sam begins to suspect he may be hiding something. After all, what actually happened to all those other missing girls? Refreshingly, Lloyd seems absolutely unconcerned with whether or not her characters are likable, and although a few British sayings ("round," “in hospital”) make their way into the dialogue of the American characters, her research into the aftereffects of long incarceration is obvious, and her portrait of an emotionally damaged woman feels spot-on.
A grim and unbearably tense debut chiller with an unexpected and utterly fitting finale.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-335-95240-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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