A simple but satisfying crime novel that will keep readers hooked.
Two down-on-their-luck entrepreneurs must chase down millions of dollars and a long-lost work of art to save their business and their own lives in Balter’s thriller.
Bo Bishop and Marty Schottare desperate for their latest pitch meeting to go well. They’re the owners of Paladin, a struggling online-retail startup based in Lake Oswego, Oregon, which is losing money fast. Their families are tired of the constant stress, long hours, and financial troubles; the pair hope that this will be the meeting that changes everything—and it does, but not in the way they hoped. It starts with a cryptic phone call from an anonymous investor promising a massive cash infusion if they meet him in his Mt. Hood cabin; there, Bo, Marty, and their silent partner, Nico, are threatened by a towering Russian thug, who holds them at gunpoint and demands $10 million and a missing painting. Bo and Marty don’t know what the man is talking about, but they do know that admitting ignorance will likely get them killed. They have four days to get their hands on the cash and a painting that’s been lost for years—one with a dark history and more than a few criminals itching to get their hands on it. This race takes Bo, Marty, and other colorful characters to strip clubs, sleazy motels (“No one stays in this dump, not even cockroaches”), and towering mansions—and scenes of total mayhem. Readers will find Balter’s novel to be a strong start for a debut author, as he very confidently moves his players around the plot’s chessboard, and each chapter is thoughtfully plotted and delightfully easy to follow. The characters are only sketchily developed, but they feel pleasantly familiar, and as such, the cast as a whole feels solid. Readers will enjoy hunting for clues right alongside the seemingly fearless Bo and Marty, and they’ll be entertained by all the dangerous, unexpected scenarios that they get themselves into along the way.
A simple but satisfying crime novel that will keep readers hooked.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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