French’s darkly ambitious tale piles on the complications until you beg for mercy. Hard-core fans of detective work as a...
The murder of an inoffensive home health visitor is only the tip of the iceberg in London psychologist Frieda Klein’s third case—and a very chilly iceberg it is, too.
No one in Ruth Lennox’s family can understand why she was savagely beaten to death in her own home. DCI Malcolm Karlsson reluctantly accepts the evidence that the killing at Chalk Farm was a burglary gone wrong, and, sure enough, there’s a burglar; but he produces an alibi (another burglary, naturally) that clears him of Ruth’s murder. As Russell Lennox and his three children begin to disintegrate under the pressure, Karlsson is more and more tempted to call on Frieda, even though her consulting contract has been canceled after the high-mortality finale of her last investigation (Tuesday’s Gone, 2013). By the time Frieda finally enters the case—not as a consultant, but as the aunt of a friend of Ted Lennox, Ruth’s 18-year-old son—another stew is already simmering. Aging reporter Jim Fearby, who’s been watching apprehensively as a new appeal frees George Conley 10 years after he was convicted of strangling Hazel Barton, wonders who killed Hazel if it wasn’t Conley. Since the police seem convinced they got the right man the first time, Fearby goes hunting on his own and soon links Hazel to half a dozen other young women who vanished under similar circumstances. Meanwhile, Frieda has become obsessed with tracking down the source of an anecdote one of her patients presented as his own memory. Her inquiries will eventually connect with Fearby’s and Karlsson’s but not before more dead ends, false confessions and unwelcome revelations than you can imagine, or perhaps desire.
French’s darkly ambitious tale piles on the complications until you beg for mercy. Hard-core fans of detective work as a vehicle for revealing the depths of the human soul will find it irresistible.Pub Date: April 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-670-01577-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
While there’s little new ground broken, the missing child scenario, when done reasonably well, as it is here, is a reliable...
The search for a missing boy is seen through the split perspective of his frantic mother and the police detective determined to solve the case, despite its deleterious effect on his psychological health.
Newly divorced photographer mum Rachel Jenner thought she was giving her 8-year-old son, Ben Finch, a bit of freedom when she let him run ahead during a walk in a Bristol park. But when Ben vanishes, Rachel immediately blames herself, and the media is quick to paint her as a neglectful parent, too. Macmillan, in her debut, leans a bit hard on the “bad mother” trope, one that’s been well-trodden in recent fiction, but she creates a compellingly complex investigator in DI Jim Clemo. The narrative is split not only between Rachel's and Clemo’s perspectives, but also Clemo’s post-investigation sessions with a department-ordered shrink, indicating that however the Finch investigation turned out, it wasn’t pretty. As Rachel waits and frets at home, often in the company of her high-achieving older sister, Nicky, who clearly knows more than she lets on, Clemo and his fellow officers, including his secret girlfriend, DC Emma Zhang, whom he perhaps unwisely recommended as Family Liaison Officer for the case, try to piece together a case from a dearth of physical evidence. The requisite family secrets come to light, though Macmillan gets credit for some truly clever red herrings.
While there’s little new ground broken, the missing child scenario, when done reasonably well, as it is here, is a reliable hook, and with Macmillan’s taut pacing, this is an engaging debut.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-241386-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Solid, satisfying thriller from the prolific Brown (Ricochet, 2006 etc.).
Fallen gridiron great, fresh out of prison, reluctantly agrees to impregnate the wife of a disabled millionaire.
After doing five years for throwing a game to settle a gambling debt with a crime syndicate, former Dallas Cowboy Griff Burkett knows his employment options are limited. A social pariah, the one-time hero quarterback is despised by the very public that once worshipped him. Still, he understandably balks when wheelchair-bound airline mogul Foster Speakman taps the ex-con for a most indecent proposal: knock-up his wife Laura; keep the baby’s real paternity a secret; walk away with millions. The gig sounds too good to be true, and the fact that Speakman insists on a “natural” conception rather than artificial means that something is not quite right. For his part, Griff does need the money, and Mrs. Speakman, while not exactly his usual type, is certainly easy on the eyes. The two have several meetings, and devoted wife Laura immediately finds herself torn with guilt over the infidelity, but also stirred by the feelings hunky Griff brings out in her. Meanwhile, Griff is being tailed by Detective Rodarte, a twisted cop who will stop at nothing (rape, murder) to see Griff back in jail or dead. After an especially passionate interlude with Griff, Laura conceives, but her joy is short-lived as her husband meets a sudden grisly end, with Griff implicated in his death. Griff is then forced to go on the run to find a witness to clear his name—before Rodarte does. He abducts the only slightly unwilling Laura to aid him in his plan, and is amazed when he realizes that staying off death row doesn’t seem to matter as much as protecting her and their unborn child. He’s a changed man, and Griff and Laura’s psychologically complex grown-up relationship is a pleasant surprise that sets the stage for the bloody finish.
Solid, satisfying thriller from the prolific Brown (Ricochet, 2006 etc.).Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7432-8935-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2007
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