Layered characters perpetrate diabolical deeds under the sunny facade of a Mayberry-esque town in this clever thriller.
Novelist Regan (Finding Claire Fletcher, 2017, etc.) is back with the second thriller in her series starring Claire Fletcher and Detective Connor Parks. Again we have a psychopath, and this one’s a very busy serial killer.
Leah Holloway, a middle-class mom, drives her SUV full of kids through a guardrail and right into the American River. She wills herself to drown, though Claire, fishing nearby, manages to rescue the kids, Leah’s three and her neighbor Rachel Irving’s twins. This is against the backdrop of what the press is calling the Soccer Mom Strangler murders. While most of the Sacramento PD is on the Strangler case, Connor and his partner, Detective Jade Webb, are assigned to figure out why Leah Holloway—a woman with no obvious stressors—would off herself. Bit by bit, they uncover threatening ugliness (the Holloways’ dog was poisoned, there was broken glass in the kids’ sandbox, the car-seat straps were cut), DNA tests that don’t make sense, and other disturbing or curious things. And then, through flashbacks, we learn of D.J. North, a hunky young creep, supposedly Rachel’s nephew from back East, who may have been involved with Leah. Much more terrifying developments ensue. Regan’s writing always impresses. For D.J., “reality became a vague, easily discarded, suggestion.” And her insight into character runs from Leah’s having several different drawers in her mind where bad stuff can be stowed (e.g., the “Did Not Happen” drawer) to the snarky depiction of Leah’s hapless husband, Jim, who is so clueless and helpless that he doesn’t even realize what a selfish jerk he is. And the final revelations are properly ingenious.
Layered characters perpetrate diabolical deeds under the sunny facade of a Mayberry-esque town in this clever thriller.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5039-4299-8
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A clever, romantic, sexy love story.
The much-loved royal romance genre gets a fun and refreshing update in McQuiston’s debut.
Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the American President Ellen Claremont, knows one thing for sure: He hates Henry, the British prince to whom he is always compared. He lives for their verbal sparring matches, but when one of their fights at a royal wedding goes a bit too far, they end up falling into a wedding cake and making tabloid headlines. An international scandal could ruin Alex’s mother’s chances for re-election, so it’s time for damage control. The plan? Alex and Henry must pretend to be best friends, giving the tabloids pictures of their bromance and neutralizing the threat to Ellen's presidency. But after a few photo ops with Henry, Alex starts to realize that the passionate anger he feels toward him might be a cover for regular old passion. There are, naturally, a million roadblocks between their first kiss and their happily-ever-after—how can American political royalty and actual British royalty ever be together? How can they navigate being open about their sexualities (Alex is bisexual; Henry is gay) in their very public and very scrutinized roles? Alex and Henry must decide if they’ll risk their futures, their families, and their careers to take a chance on happiness. Although the story’s premise might be a fantasy—it takes place in a world in which a divorced-mom Texan Democrat won the 2016 election—the emotions are all real. The love affair between Alex and Henry is intense and romantic, made all the more so by the inclusion of their poetic emails that manage to be both funny and steamy. McQuiston’s strength is in dialogue; her characters speak in hilarious rapid-fire bursts with plenty of “likes,” “ums,” creative punctuation, and pop-culture references, sounding like smarter, funnier versions of real people. Although Alex and Henry’s relationship is the heart of the story, their friends and family members are all rich, well-drawn characters, and their respective worlds feel both realistic and larger-than-life.
A clever, romantic, sexy love story.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31677-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.
When Samantha, an established-yet-struggling actress, comes home to act as maid-of-honor in her sister’s wedding, the family unabashedly tries to pair her with the best man, Ethan, her teenage crush and now a local war hero.
Samantha is the oldest Castle, and while her two sisters found true love in quick succession, she’s in New York with a struggling acting career and no Mr. Right on the horizon. Coming home to Sand Castle Bay, N.C., for youngest sister Emily’s wedding, Samantha is continually thrown in the path of Ethan Cole, local football champion–turned–war hero. Samantha had a huge high school crush on Ethan but is surprised to learn he lost a leg in Afghanistan, and his then-fiancee abandoned him soon after. Spending time with him now, Samantha realizes what a wonderful man he is, but the association is tainted by the humiliating lengths her family is going to in order to get them together. And while Ethan is a great and honorable man, his post-war romantic experience has left him gun-shy and determined to avoid relationships. At a crossroads in her own life, Samantha has to decide whether she’s going to stay in Sand Castle Bay or go back to her sputtering career in New York—and what her hopes are with Ethan. The two navigate insecurities and misunderstandings as they fall in love and fight for their happily-ever-after. Woods' latest is slightly off-key. Great writing and deft characterization can’t save a thin romantic conflict, and the more Ethan clings to his “I’ve given up on love” position, the less heroic he becomes. Some secondary storylines offer similarly shrill undertones that denote a disturbing lack of communication, unrealistic expectations and waffling with annoying justification. Still, in the end, love conquers all in satisfying ways for everyone concerned, and this ties up a few loose ends for the trilogy.
Not Woods’ best, but a smoothly written, beach-themed story with a happy ending helps forgive the weaknesses.Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1446-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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