A shrewd and energetic mystery series installment.
A capital murder trial stirs up a former judge’s murky past in Ruhl’s thriller sequel.
After helping to dismantle a drug cartel, Ben Joel has spent the last couple of years hiding with his family. But a hit man named Geronimo, who helped him in the past, tracks him down in the present to ask for a favor. He wants to pay Ben handsomely to represent Mia Delarosa, who’s in jail for the ax murder of a retired cop and alleged child molester. Ben has barely started digging into Mia’s case in Kansas, where he’d once been a lawyer and a judge, when he chances upon a drug addict who claims to recognize him. The man claims it wasn’t a heroin overdose that killed Ben’s mother 27 years ago—it was cops whom he won’t name. After Ben spots ties between his own past and Mia’s present, he starts hunting for more evidence and runs into more crime, including potential human trafficking and multiple murders. It’s hardly surprising when it turns out that someone has put a target on his back. This second series installment features a large cast, including a government agent who’s investigating both a recent murder and events from the earlier Ben-centric novel, and a billionaire socialite who may have killed Ben’s dad. Ruhl, the author of Verdict Denied (2021), deftly juggles the many players involved, many of whom Ben doesn’t know well or can’t fully trust, including the hit man who kicks everything off. They’re all connected to compelling mysteries regarding, for example, what really happened to Ben’s mom and the identity of Mia’s reputed accomplice. The author loads his pages with sharp, rapid-fire dialogue (“‘What happened?’ ‘Fight.’ ‘You win?’ ‘No one did.’ ‘No one ever does’”). But he also grounds the story in the real-life 21st-century pandemic; Ben argues remotely at a Zoom hearing as anxious defendants “play the Covid card” to manipulate proceedings. This tale delivers unexpected shocks, as well, even before the final act and gratifying denouement.
A shrewd and energetic mystery series installment.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 497
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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 standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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