A superb procedural thriller with an always entertaining and appealing cast.
Tokyo police detectives investigate a case that’s either a suicide or a homicidal act of revenge in this fourth installment of a mystery series.
Detective Hiroshi Shimizu’s job as a forensic accountant in Tokyo’s homicide department keeps him busy. But despite his preference for working from his office, the chief sends Hiroshi to check out a mangled body on a sidewalk. The victim, Shigeru Onizuka, took a 20-story plummet off the Senden Infinity building where he worked. He may have cut through the fencing on the roof, but nothing at the scene points to a potential murder. It turns out Onizuka was a rather appalling boss; his harassment and overworking of a female employee three years ago drove her to a fatal jump off the same roof. Hiroshi and fellow detectives focus on the woman’s family, including her parents, her best friend, and her American boyfriend, a jazz musician in Japan. But there’s no shortage of suspects, as several employees brought complaints against Onizuka for his incessant bullying and mistreatment. He was also a man harboring countless dark secrets, such as the possibility that he was guilty of embezzlement, a crime right up Hiroshi’s alley. One thing the detectives definitely know is that Senden is a powerful company that nearly ruined a lawyer’s career for filing a suit against it. If Senden’s executives don’t want authorities nosing around, they may resort to sinister or even lethal deeds. And as the chief wants this case closed quickly, Hiroshi and the others are running out of time.
This latest volume continues Pronko’s consistently engrossing series. While this book isn’t quite as suspenseful as the preceding ones, it presents a remarkable mystery. For example, individuals with understandable motives crowd the suspect list, as the dead man was a ruthless villain, and the killer may actually be one of his victims. Hiroshi and other detectives make a welcome return, from chain-smoking Takamatsu to former sumo wrestler Sakaguchi, whose previous injury forces him to endure a knee brace that’s too small. With the murder mystery underway, the author effectively underscores women’s mistreatment in the workplace, not necessarily only in Japan. Male bosses criticize female employees for how they dress and pressure them to have drinks after work and to put in overtime. Hiroshi is even surprised that his live-in girlfriend, Ayana, suffered similar abuse at her bank job years ago. As the story progresses, the Senden roof becomes a recurring setting; detectives reexamine the scene or meet people there for questioning. It’s also an ideal spot for Pronko to display his crisp, noirish prose: “Takamatsu ground out his cigarette, ducked under the tape, poked his head out the V” in the fence, “and leaned forward to look at the black tar on the outer ledge, where it sloped down to a rain gutter, no fence or rail, and beyond only air and gravity.” The final act, which boasts a convincing and satisfying wrap-up, is sure to leave readers eagerly awaiting Hiroshi’s next case or seeking out previous series installments.
A superb procedural thriller with an always entertaining and appealing cast.Pub Date: July 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-942410-25-6
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Raked Gravel Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
This luxurious novel is set to take the world by storm.
The true story of Axis diplomats detained in the U.S. at the start of World War II is transformed into a dazzling historical novel set at a sumptuous West Virginia hotel.
Bestselling YA fantasy author Stiefvater’s adult debut introduces a writer whose prodigious imagination and distinctive prose style have combined to create a novel that will remind readers of why they fell in love with reading in the first place. At its center is the captivating June Hudson, an erstwhile Appalachian orphan who was taken in by the wealthy Gilfoyle family, owners of the Avallon Hotel & Spa, a high-society retreat built over underground mineral springs. At his death, the patriarch bequeathed ownership to his playboy son, Edgar, but made June the general manager, as she had spent her life learning the business—and also shared with Gilfoyle Sr. a rare gift relating to the “sweetwater” springs, a fantastical element of this otherwise realistic novel. Aside from the magical waters and a few other fanciful details, Stiefvater’s fictional world is based on extensive research into high-end hotels of the period, creating a version of luxury so appealing that readers will wish they could check into the Avallon and stay on indefinitely. In fact, the novel revolves around the true meaning of luxury. To June, it has nothing to do with wealth; it is more connected to joy, and to the book’s title: “June had long ago discovered that most people were bad listeners; they thought listening was synonymous with hearing. But the spoken was only half a conversation. True needs, wants, fears, and hopes hid not in the words that were said, but in the ones that weren’t, and all these formed the core of luxury.” Also brilliantly managed is the rest of the ensemble cast: sexy FBI agents; June’s inimitable staff; the delegations of Japanese, Germans, and Italians detained at the hotel, some quite nasty, but among them a strange, special, totally silent child. And on top of all this, a delicious love story!
This luxurious novel is set to take the world by storm.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593655504
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
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