A new investigative odd couple probes a strange killing at a construction site in London's Battersea neighborhood.
Veteran detective Calil Drake would never have expected to be called to a scene as unlikely as the upscale development Magnolia Quays. But it’s there that a pair of bodies have been found at the bottom of a pit, partially covered with rocks. One of them appears to be that of Marsha Thwaite, a gallery owner whose husband is the developer. Howard Thwaite takes the news stoically, curious mainly about the manner of his wife’s death. Dr. Rayhana Crane is a forensic psychologist assigned to the case. Drake’s reputed volatility and the reserved Crane’s inexperience as a forensic investigator make their partnership proceed uneasily. The second victim is identified as Tei Hideo, a middle-aged French widower born in Japan. His daughter, Yuko, confirms that he was an artist. The motive and mechanics of the killing remain unclear. Adultery is one theory; after all, stoning is the punishment for adulterers in some cultures. Drake’s sidekick, Kelly, also uncovers evidence of kickbacks on the construction project involving creepy Mr. Cricket. As pieces of the puzzle come together with the aid of CCTV, witness testimony, and forensic analysis, Bilal rounds out the characters of his two leads with chapters about their histories. Drake’s compulsion to investigate the torching of a mosque in the neighborhood where he grew up brings him unexpectedly closer to an understanding of Crane’s past and her personality. While Drake fills in the backgrounds of the two victims, Crane clarifies the timeline and details of the murder, leading to success for the sleuths and the author of the popular Makana Mysteries series (Dark Water, 2017, etc.).
Bilal’s sure-footed storytelling and nuanced sense of character augur well for this new series.Pub Date: April 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9996833-7-5
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Indigo/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | POLICE PROCEDURALS | INTERNATIONAL CRIME
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FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast finds evil afoot in his latest action-filled adventure (Verses for the Dead, 2018, etc.).
Imagine Florida beachcombers’ shock when they discover a shoe with a severed foot inside. Soon they see dozens more feet, all in identical shoes, bobbing toward the beach. Police and FBI ultimately count more than a hundred of them washing up on Sanibel and Captiva Islands' tranquil shores. Pendergast teams up with the junior Special Agent Armstrong Coldmoon to investigate this strange phenomenon. Oceanographers use a supercomputer to analyze Gulf currents and attempt to determine where the feet entered the ocean. Were they dumped off a ship or an island? Does each one represent a homicide? Analysts examine chemical residues and pollen, even the angle of each foot’s amputation, but the puzzle defies all explanation. Attention focuses on Cuba, where “something terrible was happening” in front of a coastal prison, and on China, the apparent source of the shoes. The clever plot is “a most baffling case indeed” for the brilliant Pendergast, but it’s the type of problem he thrives on. He’s hardly a stereotypical FBI agent, given for example his lemon-colored silk suit, his Panama hat, and his legendary insistence on working alone—until now. Pendergast rarely blinks—perhaps, someone surmises, he’s part reptile. But equally odd is Constance Greene, his “extraordinarily beautiful,” smart, and sarcastic young “ward” who has “eyes that had seen everything and, as a result, were surprised by nothing.” Coldmoon is more down to earth: part Lakota, part Italian, and “every inch a Fed.” Add in murderous drug dealers, an intrepid newspaper reporter, coyotes crossing the U.S.–Mexico border, and a pissed-off wannabe graphic novelist, and you have a thoroughly entertaining cast of characters. There is plenty of suspense, and the action gets bloody.
Great storytelling, a quirky hero, and a quirkier plot make this a winner for adventure fans.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5387-4725-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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Lucas Davenport goes west.
But first he goes south, called from his home in Minnesota to the Louisiana swamp where hired killer Clayton Deese buried at least five people (the total is actually higher) before coming a cropper seven months ago with his latest target, Howell Paine. Things went sideways, sending Paine to the hospital and sentencing Deese to an ankle monitor he sliced through three days ago. Local FBI agent Sandro Tremanty, discovering Deese’s absence, wants help from the U.S. marshals in rounding up his quarry so that he can implicate loan shark Roger Smith, who’d hired him to hurt Paine and send a warning to his other debtors. And there’s another reason the feds would like to get Deese off the streets: His experiments in homicide have given him a taste for human flesh. Soon enough, Lucas, together with marshals Rae Givens and Bob Matees, has picked up Deese’s trail, which leads first to Marina Del Rey, where he’s joined his half brother, Marion Beauchamps, and Jayden Nast, “a guy with guns, who hates cops,” in a brutal home-invasion crew. Conscientious detective work brings Lucas and the LAPD within a whisker of catching Deese, but he slips away from them and heads to Las Vegas with Genesis Cox, the blonde he’s picked up, and John Rogers Cole, another accomplice. Deese and his cohort must constantly pull new jobs to support their gambling and drug habits, and it’s hard to imagine their eluding the law for very long. But there are deeper threats to their racket. Roger Smith, who knows plenty about Deese, realizes he has every reason to get rid of him, and there turns out to be no honor among the thieves closer to home either.
Professionally entertaining, with lots of realistically frustrating false hopes—though it’s hard to worry very much about the leading question here: Will the franchise hero (Twisted Prey, 2018, etc.) succeed in bringing the crooks to justice before they wipe each other off the face of the Earth?Pub Date: April 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-53658-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
Categories: MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE
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