by Nelson George ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2001
Ultra-cool black urban professional discovers that sex isn't everything, in a fourth novel by George, better known as a music journalist (Hip Hop America, 1998, etc.).
Other epiphanies follow, but first Dean Chance has lots and lots of sex with girlfriend Millie James, a “fine brown lady” who's more than willing to be smeared head-to-toe with melted Godiva chocolate and lovingly licked off. Then, after a post-sex stroll in Central Park, Millie suddenly bursts into tears because she was expecting him to propose. Suave to a fault, Dean makes her wait just a little bit longer before he pops the question. Millie is mollified. Dean is 99 percent sure that she's his one and only, but since he's a TV talk-show producer looking to boost ratings with some surefire sleaze, it's not long before he's tempted to stray. A heavy-breathing interview with a black dominatrix offers a tantalizing glimpse into New York's sexual underworld. A man-of-the-world chat with a swinging black NYU professor who also writes sex books gives him a few more leads, but Dean is distracted by a tawny temptress while buying designer ties at Barneys. Bee Cole invites him into her limo, her apartment, and her bed, where she demonstrates some interesting new ways to knot all that expensive silk. Dean loves the sex but hates himself (sort of) for cheating on Millie and talks it over at the next Knicks game with his buddies. The story gets a little more complicated: Is Millie as faithful as he thinks? Who is the mysterious male stranger in the Internet chat room with that sexy lady? Who made the secret videotapes of Dean and Bee doing the nasty? All is revealed in a who-cares denouement that will surprise no one.
A weird whiff of the ’60s and scarcely a trace of irony or wit. Cross Austin Powers with Shaft and you've got this unappealing heroPub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7432-0443-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2001
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by Allison Brennan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2020
In Brennan’s (Nothing To Hide, 2019, etc.) new series launch, a hard-edged female LAPD undercover cop and an ambitious FBI special agent race to catch a serial killer before he strikes again.
On paid administrative leave since an incident with a suspect went wrong, a restless Detective Kara Quinn is on an early morning run in her hometown of Liberty Lake, Washington, when she discovers the flayed corpse of a young nurse. In D.C., FBI Special Agent in Charge Mathias Costa is staffing the new Mobile Response Team, designed to cover rural areas underserved by law enforcement, when his boss assigns Matt and analyst Ryder Kim to Liberty Lake. The notorious Triple Killer, who murders three random victims, three days apart, every three years, has returned. With only six days to identify and catch the culprit, and only three days until he kills again, the team is “on a very tight clock.” What should be on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense turns into a slog marred by pedestrian prose (“she heard nothing except birds chirping…”), a convoluted plot slowed down by a focus on dull bureaucratic infighting, and flat character development. The sole exception is the vividly drawn Kara. Smart, angry, defensive, complicated, she fascinates both the reader and Matt ("Kara Quinn was different—and he couldn’t put his finger on why”).
Inside this bloated novel is a lean thriller starring a strong and damaged protagonist who's as compelling as Lisbeth Salander.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7783-0944-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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by Sandra Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 17, 2004
Lukewarm thriller from bestselling Brown (Hello, Darkness, 2003, etc.).
Sayre Hoyle doesn’t believe her brother Danny committed suicide, and she’s returned home to prove it—but it seems nothing ever changes in Destiny, Louisiana. The small town looks the same as ever, and the same good old boys are sitting in the same vinyl booths at the same diner, conniving and backstabbing and telling lies. Too bad one of them just happens to be Sayre’s daddy, Huff Hoyle. A self-made rich man in a poor parish, he owns a smoke-belching iron foundry, a hellish place that at least provides employment for the beaten-down men of Destiny. If industrial accidents do happen in one of ’em now and then, well, that’s God’s will. Tough-talking Huff don’t want the government OSHA boys anywhere near his foundry, and that goes double for union organizers and other un-American busybodies. Sayre’s heard it all before—and still doesn’t trust either him or her creepy older brother, Chris, who took so much pleasure in tormenting her when they were young. And there’s Huff’s new right-hand man, lawyer Beck Merchant, to contend with. What exactly does Beck stand to gain by his involvement with Huff and cronies? If only he weren’t so good-looking and sexy. . . . Back to the story: Did Slap Watkins, jug-eared, degenerate scion of inbred bayou-dwellers, kill gentleman Danny in a fit of rage when Danny refused to hire Slap’s fellow parolees? Nah. Slap doesn’t have the brains or coordination to kill a June bug. Back to the subplot: Will the tyrannical Huff resort to violence when his ironworkers defy him and go out on strike? And back to the reason Sayre hates Huff: He forced her to have an abortion, performed by an incompetent doctor who tied her, screaming, to the table in his back room. And now for the reason Beck hates Huff . . . .
Sluggish plot hemmed in by too much backstory and going-through-the-motions prose. Not Brown’s best.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2004
ISBN: 0-7432-4553-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2004
Categories: GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE
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