Indelible characters and a worthwhile denouement elevate this standard crime thriller.
A psychic consultant helps police track down a serial killer in an Arizona town in Scott’s (Cut-Throat Syndrome, 2017, etc.) mystery.
Bullhead City is a small community that doesn’t see much “big-city crime.” So a series of vicious murders is a shock to everyone, including lead investigator Lt. Dan Kropp. There are four victims within five months, all white males with severed genitalia. After making little progress in the case, Kropp seeks assistance from Jena Halpern in Cave Creek, Arizona. A psychic consultant for more than two decades, Jena begins by visiting each crime scene. She and Dan develop a capricious working relationship; sometimes they’re in sync, and other times they engage in heated arguments. But they seemingly make headway with a potential link between the victims, as more than one frequented the Hogtie Saloon, a gay bar. Unfortunately, if they can’t reassure Dan’s captain they have a substantial lead, there’s a good chance Capt. Sam Ferguson will stop investigating actively. Dan and Jena are at odds once again when she disagrees with the person he ultimately names as a suspect. But they share the same goal: to ensure that a serial killer’s spree does not continue in Bullhead City or anywhere else. Scott’s murder mystery, which launches a Jena-centric series, is proficient as a procedural. Scenes at the murder sites, for example, are detailed and furthermore showcase the author’s illustrative prose. Even Jena’s psychic readings sharply define the environment: “The air is thick with dust particles suspended in rays of muted sunlight angling through the floral drapes.” Moreover, Scott retains a sublimely simple narrative by focusing primarily on two well-drawn protagonists. Dan, for one, has trouble from the start, as dead bodies render him physically ill. On the mystery front, the investigating duo examine crime scenes and victims’ lives with little to show for it. This does, however, pay off in an unpredictable ending that finally reveals what Jena is truly capable of.
Indelible characters and a worthwhile denouement elevate this standard crime thriller.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9993551-5-2
Page Count: 242
Publisher: MAS-9375
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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