Castillo (The Dead Will Tell, 2014, etc.) poses another teasing puzzle whose solution is rooted in the past and another look...
A small-town Ohio police chief is stressed to her limit by the aftermaths of a violent tornado and a crisis in her personal life.
Although Painters Mill Chief of Police Kate Burkholder has long since left the Amish community, she knows it's helped make her who she is. Her placid life with John Tomasetti, an agent in the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation who’s still haunted by the death of his wife and children, is interrupted when the area is struck by a tornado. After Kate rescues a child and mother from a demolished trailer, she’s sued for causing the child’s death and threatened by the meth-head father. The storm also discloses a surprise from the past. Boy Scouts cleaning up the destruction discover parts of a corpse in an old barn. A surgical plate found on the scene eventually helps identify the body as Mennonite Leroy Nolt, who vanished 30 years ago. Kate and her team are unsettled to learn that the missing parts of the body were almost certainly eaten by hogs. On the homefront, Kate’s recently discovered that she’s pregnant. Neither she nor Tomasetti feels ready for parenthood, but they can't agree about what to do. A quilt Leroy gave his mother leads back to a married member of the strict Swartzentruber sect. As the Amish community closes ranks and refuses to provide any information, Kate must search the past for answers while dealing with her personal crisis.
Castillo (The Dead Will Tell, 2014, etc.) poses another teasing puzzle whose solution is rooted in the past and another look at the secretive Amish lifestyle.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-06156-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
O'Brien proves to be the Oliver Stone of literature, reiterating the same Vietnam stories endlessly without adding any insight. Politician John Wade has just lost an election, and he and his wife, Kathy, have retired to a lakeside cabin to plan their future when she suddenly disappears. O'Brien manages to stretch out this simple premise by sticking in chapters consisting of quotes from various sources (both actual and fictional) that relate to John and Kathy. An unnamed author — an irritating device that recalls the better-handled but still imperfect "Tim O'Brien" narrator of The Things They Carried (1990) — also includes lengthy footnotes about his own experiences in Vietnam. While the sections covering John in the third person are dry, these first-person footnotes are unbearable. O'Brien uses a coy tone (it's as though he's constantly whispering "Ooooh, spooky!"), but there is no suspense: The reader is acquainted with Kathy for only a few pages before her disappearance, so it's impossible to work up any interest in her fate. The same could be said of John, even though he is the focus of the book. Flashbacks and quotes reveal that John was present at the infamous Thuan Yen massacre (for those too thick-headed to understand the connection to My Lai, O'Brien includes numerous real-life references). The symbolism here is beyond cloying. As a child John liked to perform magic tricks, and he was subsequently nicknamed "Sorcerer" by his fellow soldiers — he could make things disappear, get it? John has been troubled for some time. He used to spy on Kathy when they were in college, and his father's habit of calling the chubby boy "Jiggling John" apparently wounded him. All of this is awkwardly uncovered through a pretentious structure that cannot disguise the fact that there is no story here. Sinks like a stone.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 061870986X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
A mind-bending mystery, an insightful exploration of parent-child relationships, and a cautionary tale about bitterness and...
A young man seeking catharsis probes old wounds and unleashes fresh pain in this expertly crafted stand-alone from Edgar finalist Gaylin (If I Die Tonight, 2018, etc.).
Quentin Garrison is an accomplished true-crime podcaster, but it’s not until his troubled mother, Kate, fatally overdoses that he tackles the case that destroyed his family. In 1976, teenagers Gabriel LeRoy and April Cooper murdered 12 people in Southern California—Kate’s little sister included—before dying in a fire. Kate’s mother committed suicide, and her father withdrew, neglecting Kate, who in turn neglected Quentin. Quentin intends for Closure to examine the killings’ ripple effects, but after an interview with his estranged grandfather ends in a fight, he resolves to find a different angle. When a source alleges that April is alive and living in New York as Renee Bloom, Quentin is dubious, but efforts to debunk the claim only uncover more supporting evidence, so he flies east to investigate. Renee’s daughter, online film columnist Robin Diamond, is preoccupied with Twitter trolls and marital strife when Quentin calls to inquire about her mom’s connection to April Cooper. Robin initially dismisses Quentin but, upon reflection, realizes she knows nothing of Renee’s past. Before she can ask, a violent home invasion hospitalizes her parents and leaves Robin wondering whom she can trust. Artfully strewn red herrings and a kaleidoscopic narrative heighten tension while sowing seeds of distrust concerning the characters’ honesty and intentions. Letters from April to her future daughter written mid–crime spree punctuate chapters from Quentin's and Robin’s perspectives, humanizing her and Gabriel in contrast with sensationalized accounts from Hollywood and the media.
A mind-bending mystery, an insightful exploration of parent-child relationships, and a cautionary tale about bitterness and blame.Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-284454-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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