A deep dive into some dark family places. Seriously dark.
What could be more touching than the reunion of a long-estranged mother and daughter? Practically anything, as Montgomery unsparingly reveals.
Derailed from her meteoric ascent to the legal stratosphere by accusations that she’s slept with client and divorcing dreamboat Nico Marcona, alcoholic associate Sibley Bradford lies to her husband, professor Holden Bradford, avoids checking into the rehab her boss has mandated, and drives 1,300 miles to take refuge with her mother in the frigid Midwest. It’s an odd choice because Sibley hasn’t spoken to Deborah Sawyer in years; if she had, she’d know her mother is wrestling demons of her own. Mother and daughter were torn apart by some troubled history, from the death of Deborah’s farmer husband, Jonathan, 16 years ago in a fall from his barn loft to the unsettling evidence that Deborah was having an affair with Edward Pearson, a veteran whose PTSD drove him to suicide. Even before she turns up unannounced on Deborah’s doorstep, Sibley has already overheard a conversation that makes her suspect she’s not actually Jonathan’s daughter. For her part, Deborah, after greeting her daughter warily, becomes more and more suspicious that this woman isn’t actually Sibley. Talking to Dr. Alice Alacoy, the psychiatrist her mother had recently begin consulting, Sibley comes away with the deeply equivocal wisdom that “what we forget is more important than what we remember.” Officer Miles Fletcher, Sibley’s old high school friend, warns her that two convicts have recently escaped from a nearby prison. But they can’t possibly pose a greater threat than Sibley and Deborah do to each other.
A deep dive into some dark family places. Seriously dark.Pub Date: March 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2298-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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