Energetic crime fiction with sharp characters and a realistic menace.
An FBI agent and a homicide detective investigate murder and acid attacks in the Seattle area in Witt’s (The Tide of War, 2014) thriller.
Detective Damian Arruda is wracked with guilt after his partner, Allen Shephard, is killed. Allen had been convinced that his wife’s murder wasn’t just a random act, and Damian believed that his partner was chasing an imaginary conspiracy. As it turns out, Allen had been working with Special Agent Melissa Walker of the FBI’s cybercrimes unit. She’d also recently lost a partner, Shel Randall, and his murder, along with Allen’s, is likely related to an investigation into so-called “incel” forums. Incels are groups of people, predominantly men, who deem themselves “involuntarily celibate.” Melissa’s team has been monitoring their online communities, which generally consist of complaints; many forum-posters believe that they’re “entitled” to sex. The FBI believes that incels are behind some incidents of violence against women, and Melissa suspects them of attacking attractive men (whom incels call “Chads”) with sulfuric acid in and around Seattle. Working with Damian, Melissa and her six-agent team at the FBI’s Seattle field office keep a close eye on the members of one particular online forum, SaltyIncels. The acid attacks continue, however, and a new threat emerges when the team has reason to believe that recently discovered explosives are linked to an incel bombing plan. Witt’s dramatization of the real-life subculture of incels is riveting; periodic chapters of online discussions, for example, reveal how anonymous posters encourage others to engage in violent behavior. Her rich characterizations of the shrewd, headstrong protagonists augment the narrative, as does her use of short scenes and copious dialogue. There’s also plenty of tension throughout, as when Melissa’s boss wants her to drop the case and head back to Washington, D.C., or team members’ recurring clashes threaten to derail the investigation. Parts of the story, however, rely too heavily on coincidence, and one significant plot turn is easy to see coming. However, many readers will likely want to read more about Melissa and Damian in future planned installments.
Energetic crime fiction with sharp characters and a realistic menace.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71992-852-6
Page Count: 486
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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