Top-quality storytelling for thriller fans.
A diamond is no one’s best friend in this fast-paced debut novel filled with greed, violence, and politics.
“All diamonds are blood diamonds,” begins the tale. “It’s just a question of whose blood.” The 1,512-carat pink rock is barely off a Congo riverbed when the killing begins. Worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the “savage, unconquerable” stone eventually ends up adorning the neck of Honey Li, the wife of billionaire and U.S. presidential contender Harry Nash. Alas, “the man who tries to master this…will never know peace.” Meanwhile, protagonist Alex Turner is a Treasury agent working for Special Audits on illegal gem trading by Russian organized crime. He gets help from Slav Lily, an independent diamond trader/thief simultaneously “working for the bad guys, the good guys, and herself.” She believes in God the Father Almighty, Jesus Christ, and her fully-loaded slimline subcompact Glock. In fact, all the characters are well drawn: “Honey oozed from the car as if she had been squeezed from a tube, lithe and smooth as paste.” A police commissioner who sounds suspiciously like Bill Bratton has “street smarts so sharp you could shave with them.” “Chuck was seduced by his own imagination, a fertile garden that he’d never learned to weed.” And the narrative is chock-full of memorable lines: “It’s true that she wore a Kevlar vest, but, fatally, not a Kevlar hat.” Ouch! Bad guys home in on Turner’s daughter and ex-wife as a way of stopping him, which naturally pisses him off—but will he be able to protect his family? Early on in the story, the Russian mob’s brutality becomes crystal clear, with the torture and murder of a woman in Brighton Beach. The author writes with skill, wit, and evident knowledge about the diamond industry—who knew there were such things as diamond pipes?
Top-quality storytelling for thriller fans.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64313-550-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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