A captivating, colorful mystery by an author well-versed in its setting.
Three lost souls find new direction in this debut thriller.
In this first book in his planned Andalusian Mystery series, debut author Bradley brings together a grizzled, Spanish veteran detective, a British entrepreneur, and an American videographer who work together to solve the mystery behind the disappearance of a beautiful British waitress. DI Leon Prado had been a star in his department until a kidnapping case gone awry sent him and his career into a tailspin. He’s just beginning to get his bearings again when he’s handed a new assignment to investigate crimes involving foreigners in Malaga, Spain. Phillip Armitage is an expatriate British businessman who moved to the country to escape the painful memories of a failed marriage. His new problem is that he’s smitten by Juliet, a young waitress who reminds him of his unfaithful ex-spouse. The orbits of Leon and Phillip intersect when Phillip’s Belgian friend Marcel Faucher is questioned regarding a murder and Leon needs an interpreter. Meanwhile, American filmmaker Amanda Salisbury creates films about Spain for international markets. While editing her footage of a local festival, she discovers that she filmed Juliet’s kidnapping. She takes the video to the police station, where she meets Leon and Phillip, who’d come there to report Juliet missing. They join forces and end up targeting a local sex-trafficking ring. Bradley’s masterful narrative slowly builds momentum, gaining speed as it heads toward a harrowing climax. The British author has lived in and traveled throughout Spain for the last quarter-century, and in his hands, Costa del Sol becomes a character all its own: “A few fluffy white clouds speckled an azure sky, contrasting against the deeper bluey turquoise of the calm Mediterranean.” Bradley’s knowledge of the region’s people and events gives the novel a firm sense of authenticity. Meanwhile, his trio of bruised characters determinedly work for the greater good, and readers will root for them and look forward to future installments.
A captivating, colorful mystery by an author well-versed in its setting.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 320
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A tour de force.
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.” There are many great things about this book—one of them is its constant stream of memorably formulated insights about Alaska. Another key example is delivered by Large Marge, a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who now runs the general store for the community of around 30 brave souls who live in Kaneq year-round. As she cautions the Allbrights, “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.” Hannah’s (The Nightingale, 2015, etc.) follow-up to her series of blockbuster bestsellers will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet–like coming-of-age story, and domestic potboiler. She re-creates in magical detail the lives of Alaska's homesteaders in both of the state's seasons (they really only have two) and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America.
A tour de force.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-312-57723-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
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