A sometimes-slow thriller best suited for fans already familiar with the series.
A mysterious murder serves as the backdrop for Cover’s third installment in The Sessions University thriller series.
Following the events of the previous series installments, Thomas Simpson, who two years ago was “a nobody associate professor of communications at Sessions, dealing only with [his] courses to ever more ill-prepared and clueless undergraduates” is now the executive director of the philanthropic Mark Berger Foundation. With him is his best friend Zoltan Vastag, a Hungarian who is also a leading cancer researcher at the medical center, and Mark Berger, an alumnus billionaire with an amusing Boston accent (“I like that idea. Might even be a nice naming opportunity in honah of my parents”) who is now chair of the board of trustees at Sessions. After a dangerous few years involving covered-up murders, international espionage, and being under the terrifying watch of U.S. Special Operations, the three men are ready for their lives to return to normal. But just as things seem to be settling down, the acting president of the university is murdered while making his way home on campus. The mysterious killer? An untraceable drone with an equally untraceable 3D-printed gun. Now it’s up to Thomas, Zoltan, and Mark to figure out who’s behind the murder, all while trying to keep themselves safe in the process. Though marketed as a standalone novel, new readers might be confused by the expansive backstory needed to clarify the plot. In the same vein, a big cast of side characters can be hard to keep track of for those unfamiliar with the series. While Cover’s use of a killer drone as a looming terror over the campus is fun and unique, the more thrilling aspects of the novel are overshadowed by an excess of dialogue-heavy scenes that occasionally make the pacing feel sluggish.
A sometimes-slow thriller best suited for fans already familiar with the series.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Epigraph Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
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