Knowles builds for impact and speed. Even the ruthless hero’s matter-of-fact reflections on his felonious craft (“The games...
The fifth recorded caper for the thief who, imitating Richard Stark’s Parker, is known only as Wilson dangles a fortune in jewels in front of him and an ill-fated crew.
David Phillips and his brother-in-law, Alvin, offer a nifty target for a heist: Mendelson Jewels, where David works as a jewelry designer for Saul Mendelson, who’s become a little absent-minded and more than a little paranoid as he’s gotten on in years. During one special weekend, Mendelson will be holding a million dollars’ worth of sparklers waiting for the right personnel to grab, and Vin believes he’s assembled just the right personnel: strong-armed Johnny, a racist ex-con, and his buddy Tony; a pair of safecrackers both named Diego; Elliot, a hacker who can get inside the firm’s computer system; Monica, an African-American driver; and Wilson (The Buffalo Job, 2014, etc.) and his friend Miles. The group’s original plan, which already sounds pretty complicated, is aborted when two apparently indispensable members of the crew are killed in a car crash, leaving Wilson, who always thought nine people were too many for the job in the first place, to try his luck together with Monica and Miles. When this second attempt is stymied as well, Wilson realizes that he’s up against a rival thief just as smart and ruthless as he is, somebody who’s been playing him from the beginning. As in Jeffery Deaver’s very different thrillers, identifying the other thief doesn’t end the complications. Neither does killing the other thief. The tension will ease only when breathless readers turn the very last page.
Knowles builds for impact and speed. Even the ruthless hero’s matter-of-fact reflections on his felonious craft (“The games we play are never fair and they never end clean. They just end”) achieve a truly baleful economy.Pub Date: May 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77041-101-2
Page Count: 296
Publisher: ECW Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
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