A dynamic cast drives this striking, historically rich crime thriller.
In Cobb’s mystery novel, a reporter aims to prove a wrongfully convicted man innocent by unmasking the actual killer.
People in 11-year-old Billy Tarwater’s Atlanta community are shocked when a young girl turns up missing. Before long, someone has abducted and assaulted three girls, leaving two dead and the other comatose. It’s 1963, the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and the police seemingly want to pin these crimes on Sam Jepperson, a local Black man. Despite a lack of evidence against him, he winds up behind bars. Years later, in 1980, Billy is a family man working at a newspaper as a reporter. He’s convinced that the wrong man sits in prison for the crimes against the girls, and he’s determined to track down the real culprit. He’s not after a story—he’s on a personal mission, as his wife has strong ties to the 17-year-old case. But there’s unmistakable potential for danger, especially if the murderer still walks free. Cobb’s mystery features compellingly drawn characters who draw the reader in. Much of the novel unfolds in 1963 and alternates narrative perspectives between copious people entangled in the crimes; Billy’s investigation dominates the latter half. A White man, he’s faced neither racial injustice nor a sexual assault, but the theme of the destructive effects of discrimination remains strong throughout. Punchy dialogue propels a series of interrogation and interview scenes from the police’s investigation in 1963 (“They put him through the mill. Ground him down like a sorghum kernel”) and Billy’s rounds of questions in 1980. These sequences highlight the alarming differences between the two paths of inquiry, as it’s disturbingly clear that the cops have a preconceived idea as to who’ll be serving time. Although most readers will unravel the mystery well before the end, the chilling denouement packs a punch.
A dynamic cast drives this striking, historically rich crime thriller.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9780578371436
Page Count: 480
Publisher: M G Cobb Books
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.
It takes a quirky sleuth to solve a baffling closed-door murder.
The author himself or, more accurately, some version of him, walks the reader through a “gruesome murder” that occurred in a rural farming village. At the center of the crime is the wealthy Ichiyanagi family, including the widow Itoko and her five children. The “heinous crime” occurs in the evening after the festive wedding of eldest son Kenzo to schoolteacher Katsuko. Yokomizo, part narrator and part raconteur, liberally shares digressions such as the fact that his favorite British author is A.A. Milne, who wrote The Red House Mystery as well as the books about Winnie-the-Pooh. Written in 1946 but set in 1937 before the devastation of World War II, this is the first novel featuring Kosuke Kindaichi, the legendary detective who appeared in more than 70 stories by Yokomizo. If Yokomizo is the Japanese Agatha Christie, Kindaichi may seem the Japanese Hercule Poirot—although actually, given his unkempt hair and apparently distracted manner, he’s more a cross between Poirot and Columbo. Shrewdly, his entrance is delayed until midway through the novel, after the police have stalled and both the family and the reader are anxious for a solution. The narrator’s garrulous charm, in a mystery long on logistics and forensic clues but short on detailed character portraits or extended interactions, is a key to the novel’s success, leavening the more intricate pieces of the puzzle. Armchair detectives will welcome the helpful character list that precedes the story.
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781805336549
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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