A gripping but uneven conspiracy thriller with two clever sleuths.
In this mystery, two inspectors investigate a series of brutal murders involving animal experts.
In Madrid, a drugged Alejandro de Portillo, one of Spain’s most prominent bullfighting promoters, awakens in the middle of the night in a bullring, where a bull is set loose, viciously killing him. In France, a trainer is trampled in a stable by one of the horses he handles. In Amsterdam, Dr. Arnold von Beek, an animal researcher, is likewise attacked by the primates in his care. Just when it seems things can’t get crazier, Benny Dawson, “a well-known, but universally disliked” British promoter of greyhound races, is tied to a rod that the dogs chase and dragged around a stadium to his death. An organizer of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, meets a similar, horrifically ironic fate. Chief Inspector Mercedes Garcia Rico of Spain’s National Police Force and her husband, Gino Cerone, a former United States Secret Service agent now with Interpol, look into the bizarre killings. Their investigation leads them to a coalition of animal rights groups, including End Animal Research Now, Animal Rights Militia, Monkeys Are Us, and A Lifetime in Cages. At the center of the suspected conspiracy are Max De Groot and Victoria Valenzuela, who comes from one of Spain’s most popular bullfighting families and finest bull breeding ranches. But both have alibis. This thriller recalls the cult film classic Theater of Blood, in which an actor dispatches the critics who panned him with deaths out of Shakespeare’s plays. This story has the same pull, especially for animal lovers. This is Rico and Cerone’s third case, and they are an efficient team. Camarda’s murder set pieces are effectively written (“De Portillo took the full brunt of one of the horns in his left side, bursting bone, tissues, and organs in a torrid thrust”). The dialogue, though, is stilted, as when De Groot and Valenzuela discuss their abhorrence of animal abuse: “I know what you mean, Victoria. The use of animals in medical and cosmetic research continues in my country.” References to Alfred Hitchcock’s film Strangers on a Train err about the plot—Guy, the tennis player, did not plan his wife’s murder. This tale could have used more of the Master of Suspense’s diabolical touch.
A gripping but uneven conspiracy thriller with two clever sleuths.Pub Date: April 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66554-962-2
Page Count: 294
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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