A wonderfully written crime tale that favorably compares to the work of Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, and Elmore...
Suspense novelist Regan (Aberration, 2013, etc.) tells the story of a woman victimized by a twisted kidnapper and sexual predator.
At the book’s outset, readers find out that Claire Fletcher was kidnapped on her way to school 10 years ago, when she was 15. In the very next chapter, set in the present, 25-year-old Claire is in a bar, where she seduces off-duty Detective Connor Parks of the Sacramento Police Department, whose own personal and professional life is in shambles. They have a tryst at his apartment, but she quickly leaves so that she can return to her kidnapper before he realizes that she’s missing; she leaves Connor with her family’s address, trying to let them know that she’s still alive. When he finds out about Claire’s true situation, he becomes determined to find her. He gets help from his buddies on the force and from private investigator Mitch Farrell, an old family friend of the Fletchers. Claire was abducted by a twisted man with a dark past. For years, he’s been tying Claire up and brutalizing her—all the while declaring his love for her and telling her that she will come to love him. Eventually, though, she’s allowed a very small amount of freedom—which she uses to her advantage. Her kidnapper is assisted by a young woman named Tiffany, a runaway who sees Claire as a rival. The story effectively toggles between first-person narration (from Claire’s point of view, in captivity) and a third-person perspective, which usually focuses on Connor. Regan’s pacing is a marvel—one moment, she’s lingering on the grotesque, brutal treatment of Claire, and the next, she shifts gears to show Connor’s frantic pursuit of the kidnapper. The latter is truly a monster, and his portrayal will disturb readers’ sleep. Claire, meanwhile, is believably shown to be gutsy and resourceful under conditions that would crush even the toughest people. Tiffany’s minor role becomes a star performance, mixing evil with apparent innocence.
A wonderfully written crime tale that favorably compares to the work of Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, and Elmore Leonard.Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5420-4610-7
Page Count: 396
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Middling among the distinguished author’s score of thrillers. New fans hooked by this one will be happy to know that his...
Downsized from the Los Angeles Times, crime reporter Jack McEvoy decides to ride one last big story to the moon.
There’s no mystery about who suffocated stripper Denise Babbit and stuffed her corpse into the trunk of her car, since Alonzo Winslow, 16, confessed to the murder after the LAPD found his fingerprint on the car’s mirror. But when Alonzo’s mother—or maybe it’s his grandmother, or both—nags just-fired Jack to look into the case, he quickly realizes that Alonzo’s confession isn’t a confession at all. And Angela Cook, the twinkie barracuda Jack’s been asked to groom as his replacement, alerts him to the earlier murder of Las Vegas showgirl Sharon Oglevy that has all the earmarks of this one, even though her ex-husband’s already locked up for it. Clearly there’s a serial killer at work, and clearly, though Jack doesn’t realize it, it’s Wesley Carver, a computer-security expert whose ability to track everyone on earth through cyberspace makes him uniquely sensitive to who might be on his case, and uniquely empowered to neutralize them. After losing his bank balance and his credit cards to identity theft, however, Jack is rescued by Rachel Walling, the FBI agent whose torrid affair with him enlivened his last big story (The Poet, 1996). The ensuing cat-and-mouse game, duly played out in chapters alternately presented from the viewpoints of Jack and Carver, is accomplished but not especially suspenseful for readers who’ve seen it before. Despite his cyber-powers, Carver isn’t an especially scary villain, nor does Jack shine as a sleuth. But Connelly (The Brass Verdict, 2008, etc.), who’s nothing if not professional, keeps the twists coming and provides column-inches of background expertise—perhaps more than the story needs—on the hard business of hard news and a realistic preview of Jack’s likely fate.
Middling among the distinguished author’s score of thrillers. New fans hooked by this one will be happy to know that his backlist is even richer.Pub Date: May 26, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-16630-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
Great fun from one of the better Cussler series.
The seventh page-turner in the Cussler series featuring indomitable detective Isaac Bell.
World War I’s over. Prohibition’s law. The Van Dorn Detective Agency is helping the Coast Guard chase rumrunners and bootleggers, but it’s rough sailing. Boatloads of money are being used to corrupt police, Coasties and even weaklings in Van Dorn’s agency. Things turn critical quickly when Joseph Van Dorn himself is gravely wounded in a shootout at sea. He charges his No. 1 man, Isaac, with keeping the agency running, but Isaac’s more interested in finding Joseph’s assailant. Cussler/Scott do a bang-up job with characterizations in this historical action tale, beginning with Isaac, the Jazz Age James Bond; Isaac’s protégé, beautiful former librarian Fräulein Privatdetektive Pauline Grandzau; and Marat Zolner, a Comintern operative who believes rumrunning can aid in overthrowing the international bourgeoisie. The plot’s believable, and there are fistfights, knifings or a Lewis gun spitting bullets page after page. The action shifts from New York City’s docks to luxury hotels where Isaac entertains his movie-star wife to Long Island estates. Cussler and company love historical factoids—across the Long Island landscape, bootleggers and others prowl in Pierce-Arrows, Packards and Rolls Royces. Marat’s a worthy adversary, one so amoral as to murder fellow apparatchiks sent to keep him from going rogue. There are gangs—White Hands, Black Hands and Purple Gang—flinging lead as Isaac chases Marat from NYC to Detroit (where liquor arrives from Canada via an under-river tunnel) to Miami to the Bahamas and beyond.
Great fun from one of the better Cussler series.Pub Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16729-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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