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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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