An often rousing tale with a many-layered protagonist.
A contract killer’s ex-boss is determined to see her dead in Stern’s (Hope in Small Doses, 2015, etc.) thriller.
Suzanne Brooks’ future was set in 1978 when she sought revenge for her roommate, Greta, who was beaten, nearly to death, by a drug dealer. Just out of the Army, Suzanne had the marksmanship to take out Greta’s assailant but she also killed a second man who worked for crime lord Victor Kemp. After Victor tracks Suzanne down, he gives her no choice but to become his employee after finishing college—a corporate security manager in Manhattan who also does work as an assassin. Twenty-five years later, she finally escapes this arrangement to be with Brian Foster, the man whom she secretly married more than 20 years before and with whom she had a son, Michael. Victor eventually finds Suzanne and her family in hiding, triggering an explosive confrontation that ends with the crime lord’s presumed death. But as the Fosters resume their lives in the United Kingdom, Victor is in seclusion, awaiting his chance at retribution. While Suzanne begins to suspect that he’s alive, danger comes her way, including from someone who’s targeting her on Victor’s behalf. She may have to draw on her old job skills again to protect her family. Stern takes a curious approach to her story by providing few details about Suzanne’s hits, focusing instead on her post-retirement life and how she grapples with questions of identity. It’s unhurried but perceptive, as Suzanne muses on whether she would have been a killer without Victor’s coercion. Suzanne’s and Victor’s back stories effectively amplify both characters: Suzanne’s mom kicked her out of the house at 15, for instance, and Victor has two illegitimate sons. Although much of the tale is concerned with Suzanne’s everyday circumstances (such as Michael’s engagement party), looming violence is always evident. The early plot twists are predictable, but later turns in the smashing final act come at a searing pace.
An often rousing tale with a many-layered protagonist.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 301
Publisher: Ruthenia Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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