Johnston’s gentle but bland heroine, now making her third appearance, and her lack of subtlety in handling the theme of luck...
A murder in a town obsessed with luck leaves residents unsure what they can do to protect themselves while the prime suspect tries to clear her name.
As she concludes her public talk in Destiny, California, about animals and superstitions, Rory Chasen’s excited to share her newest products with her neighbors in her adopted home. The manager at the Lucky Dog Boutique, a store that specializes in the luckiest of accessories and food (yes, lucky food) for pets, Rory’s come up with a line of pet toys infused with luck, like a stuffed rabbit with an oversized foot. Though it may be corny, the town’s residents and visitors have all come to Destiny to share in the luck, and every interaction is sanctified by knocking on wood or crossing fingers. Rory (Knock on Wood, 2015, etc.) feels pretty lucky herself. Having come to Destiny to investigate the death of her fiance, she’s thinking of staying indefinitely, even shopping for an apartment or house to share with her best friend, Gemma, an even more recent transplant. Learning of their plans, pushy real estate agent Flora Curtival forces her services on Rory and Gemma even though the two aren’t sure they’re ready to commit. Nor is Rory the only person Flora is antagonizing. Rumors link her to a series of break-ins evidently intent on bringing storekeepers bad luck. Rory hears about the rumors from her boyfriend, policeman Justin Halbertson, though she’s also informed that it’s bad luck to talk about the crimes. Guilty or innocent, Flora is soon found murdered with one of Rory’s lucky rabbit’s feet stuffed in her mouth. Now Rory will need all the luck she can find to maintain her innocence.
Johnston’s gentle but bland heroine, now making her third appearance, and her lack of subtlety in handling the theme of luck will either amuse or repel readers.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7387-4555-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Midnight Ink/Llewellyn
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
Furiously suspenseful, but brain-dead second volume in Child’s gratuitously derivative Jack Reacher action series (Killing Floor, 1997). Reacher, a former Army Military Police Major, has now moved on to Chicago, where he gallantly assists a beautiful mystery woman hobbling on a crutch with her dry cleaning. Seconds later, Reacher and the woman, FBI agent Holly Johnson (also daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as goddaughter of the President), are kidnaped by armed gunmen. Handcuffed together and tossed in the back of a van, the two are taken to the Montana mountain stronghold of Beau Borken, a fat, ugly, psychopathically vicious neo-Nazi militia leader given to sawing the arms off day laborers and making windy speeches about how he brilliant he is. Of course, the kidnappers don’t know that they have a former military police major in their clutches who, in addition to having a Silver Star for heroism, is one of the best snipers the Army has ever produced, can pull iron rings out of barn doors, and kill bad guys with lit cigarettes. Meanwhile, a team of FBI agents, at least one of whom is a mole leaking information to Borken, identify Reacher from a reconstructed photo taken from the dry cleaner’s surveillance camera. Borken, impressed with Reacher’s military record, lectures him about his brilliant plan to overthrow the US using a hijacked Army missile unit, with Holly held as a hostage in a specially constructed, dynamite-lined prison cell. Borken stupidly lets Reacher best him in a shooting match, then grandiosely turns his back on his captives enough times for Reacher and Holly to escape, cause havoc, get captured, escape, make love in the woods, cause more havoc, and get captured again, as General Johnson, FBI Director Harlan Webster, and General Garber, Reacher’s former commander, plan a covert strike on Borken’s fortress that’s certain to fail. Another Rogue Warrior meets Die Hard with all the typical over-the-top plotting, blood-splattering ultraviolence, lock-jawed heroics and the dumbest villains this side of Ruby Ridge.
Pub Date: July 20, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14379-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998
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