A taut romantic suspenser that may appeal to fans of Nora Roberts’ work.
In Fleming’s (Whatever We Are, 2017, etc.) romantic thriller, an FBI agent discovers that the woman he loves has a hidden past, which puts them both in the cross hairs of a dangerous fugitive.
FBI agent Derek Bronson joins the team investigating a robbery and homicide at the Pipersburg Community Bank. He believes the case is connected to similar crimes that have been taking place throughout Kentucky and West Virginia. This case is personal for Derek, because his father, Jack, was murdered during one of the other robberies. After joining the team, Derek travels to nearby Highland Springs for the wedding of his friends, Kate and Brody, and at a bar, he meets Riley Smith, a florist and friend of the couple. Derek and Riley’s attraction is immediate and passionate. As the investigation continues, the team gets a major break when surveillance photos show a woman spending marked money from one of the robberies. The woman looks like Riley, but authorities identify her as Angela Breeland. When questioned by Derek and the team, Riley admits that she is Angela, but that she changed her name because she’s hiding from Tyler Power, an abusive ex-boyfriend who’d forced her into sex work. Derek soon finds himself in a race against time to catch a serial robber and protect the woman he loves. Fleming’s series starter offers intriguing, compulsively readable romantic suspense, bolstered by strong characters and a twisty, fast-paced story. Riley is a complex heroine with a tragic and harrowing past; her backstory is slowly revealed as Derek investigates her possible connection to the crime spree. The romance between her and Derek heats up quickly, heightened by their palpable chemistry, particularly in an early scene in which they flirt during a game of pool. The supporting players are also well-developed—particularly Riley’s former boyfriend Tyler Power and her beloved brother, Cody Breeland.
A taut romantic suspenser that may appeal to fans of Nora Roberts’ work.Pub Date: June 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68291-743-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A presold prefab blockbuster, what with King's Carrie hitting the moviehouses, Salem's Lot being lensed, The Shining itself sold to Warner Bros. and tapped as a Literary Guild full selection, NAL paperback, etc. (enough activity to demand an afterlife to consummate it all).
The setting is The Overlook, a palatial resort on a Colorado mountain top, snowbound and closed down for the long, long winter. Jack Torrance, a booze-fighting English teacher with a history of violence, is hired as caretaker and, hoping to finish a five-act tragedy he's writing, brings his wife Wendy and small son Danny to the howling loneliness of the half-alive and mad palazzo. The Overlook has a gruesome past, scenes from which start popping into the present in various suites and the ballroom. At first only Danny, gifted with second sight (he's a "shiner"), can see them; then the whole family is being zapped by satanic forces. The reader needs no supersight to glimpse where the story's going as King's formula builds to a hotel reeling with horrors during Poesque New Year's Eve revelry and confetti outta nowhere....
Back-prickling indeed despite the reader's unwillingness at being mercilessly manipulated.
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1976
ISBN: 0385121679
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1976
PERSPECTIVES
Steinbeck's peculiarly intense simplicity of technique is admirably displayed in this vignette — a simple, tragic tale of Mexican little people, a story retold by the pearl divers of a fishing hamlet until it has the quality of folk legend. A young couple content with the humble living allowed them by the syndicate which controls the sale of the mediocre pearls ordinarily found, find their happiness shattered when their baby boy is stung by a scorpion. They dare brave the terrors of a foreign doctor, only to be turned away when all they can offer in payment is spurned. Then comes the miracle. Kino find a great pearl. The future looks bright again. The baby is responding to the treatment his mother had given. But with the pearl, evil enters the hearts of men:- ambition beyond his station emboldens Kino to turn down the price offered by the dealers- he determines to go to the capital for a better market; the doctor, hearing of the pearl, plants the seed of doubt and superstition, endangering the child's life, so that he may get his rake-off; the neighbors and the strangers turn against Kino, burn his hut, ransack his premises, attack him in the dark — and when he kills, in defense, trail him to the mountain hiding place- and kill the child. Then- and then only- does he concede defeat. In sorrow and humility, he returns with his Juana to the ways of his people; the pearl is thrown into the sea.... A parable, this, with no attempt to add to its simple pattern.
Pub Date: Nov. 24, 1947
ISBN: 0140187383
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1947
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
