King’s latest novel proves he still adores the Travelers, and so will longtime fans.
This eighth volume of the Travelers series sees the con artist couple attempting to score diamonds while avoiding a showdown between White nationalists and the FBI.
Danny and Genie Briggs are enjoying a retreat in the Florida Keys; at least, those are the grifters’ current names as they prepare a fresh heist. Through a connection, they learn that the Orange Hill Cartel ships $10 million in diamonds twice a year, smuggling them out of Mumbai via stateside Hashemi Wholesale Carpets & Arts. The second-generation Indian American Hashemi siblings—married Zander and recently widowed Nadia—only dabble in crime, but they’re the perfect targets for the Travelers’ unique brand of subterfuge and seduction. Meanwhile, in Summerville, Iowa, White nationalists of the Fatherland Volk ready the deadly next step in their plot to eliminate foreign elements from the United States. Specifically, members Bruce MacBurn, Ray Johnston, and Joe Lang plan to acquire uranium and bomb several buildings, including the Denver Mint and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Joe, however, is actually a mole for the FBI’s Counterterrorism Task Force. As he allows the White nationalists to proceed with their plan—and potentially set themselves up for arrest on more severe charges—the Hashemis get tangled up in the scheme and realize they can no longer afford to be amateurs in the smuggling game. King’s fans will relish this smoothly set up con that, like others in the series, has just enough complexity to allow unexpected chaos to occur. His nuanced antiheroes steal the show, as when Danny, in conversation with Genie, expresses his chances of seducing Nadia with the chillingly confident line, “We’re already in love.” The Fatherland Volk members, meanwhile, despicably use racist epithets and discuss blaming their terrorism on Middle Eastern agents. Nadia’s sentimental characterization will keep readers distressed over her fate (“There was nothing wrong with wanting to be touched, wanting to feel that wild happiness, if only for a few moments”). This entry’s mellow finale, memorable cast, and emotional weight may have readers hoping for a direct sequel. That said, the author rarely offers readers what they expect.
King’s latest novel proves he still adores the Travelers, and so will longtime fans.Pub Date: May 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-952711-00-8
Page Count: 217
Publisher: Blurred Lines Press
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A briskly paced, richly atmospheric historical thriller.
In 1901, as the crowned heads of Europe arrive in London for Queen Victoria’s funeral, a Scotland Yard detective assigned to protect the new king, Edward VII, must outwit a foreign assassin whose target may in fact be Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany.
This lively and assured historical drama opens as the reign of “tiny, and shrewd” Queen Victoria is replaced by that of her libidinous son, Albert, aka Edward VII, whose bodyguard, William Melville, is the novel’s world-weary narrator. “A Catholic peasant promoted far above his station,” as he jokingly puts it, Melville has risen to Detective Chief Superintendent “through tenacity, low cunning and [his] own clumping fists.” Irish by birth and suspicious by nature, he knows that the imminent royal funeral procession, as it winds through London, will become, “for terrorists...one long shooting gallery, with every prize a jackpot.” European anarchists are Melville’s main suspects (“how I despised these fanatics”), and, sure enough, villainous zealots promptly materialize, leading Melville on a merry chase, though he quickly sniffs out the existence of a murderous plot far more labyrinthine than one prompted by pure ideology. “Politics is a stately dance with poisoned daggers,” he observes, as he begins to doubt even his German sidekick, Gustav Steinhauer, who is the kaiser’s master spy and therefore on the right side. Or is he? Both Melville and Steinhauer, along with many other characters, are based on historical personages, and their portraits—along with that of stinking, foggy London—are finely drawn. The narrative pace never flags, and even the obligatory scenes of shootouts, explosions, and hurtling locomotives are refreshingly vivid. The novel’s quieter moments are, however, its best, and none is better than its final twist. “Let’s just say I work with certain people who share your concerns about developments on the Continent,” an aristocratic stranger says, inviting Melville for a chat at his club. “We could use a man of your experience.” So the next installment has surely begun.
A briskly paced, richly atmospheric historical thriller.Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4905-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Deaver lite: a fleet, irresistible tale with just enough twists to have been imagined by someone else.
After the reward money, as always, security consultant Colter Shaw searches for a missing person several other less scrupulous people are searching for, too.
The Midwestern startup Harmon Energy Products has worked feverishly to develop Pocket Sun, a room-sized nuclear reactor that holds serious promise for supplying African states’ energy needs. Its biggest innovation, founder Marty Harmon tells Shaw, is the security intervention trigger developed by engineer Allison Parker, a device that renders the reactor inoperable if it’s stolen. When an S.I.T. is itself stolen by an insider planning to sell it to one of Harmon’s competitors, Shaw promptly identifies the thief, earning a shot at a much bigger reward if he can find Allison Parker, who’s taken off with her daughter, teenage math prodigy Hannah, in response to the news that her ex-husband, former Ferrington Police Det. Jon Merritt, has been released from prison early. Allison’s testimony had put Merritt away for three years for assaulting and attempting to kill her. Now, hours after lawyer David Stein warns her that Merritt has been released after only a year, she and the vocally reluctant Hannah have taken a powder, and Merritt has grabbed Stein for information about where they might have gone. The complication is that Shaw and Merritt aren’t the only people looking for Allison; a crew of mobbed-up killers are on her trail as well. Remarkably for the reliably inventive author, that really is the main complication; the converging searches proceed along relatively predictable lines, though Deaver wouldn’t be Deaver if he didn’t have cannily timed surprises to detonate along the way.
Deaver lite: a fleet, irresistible tale with just enough twists to have been imagined by someone else.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-42208-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
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