Part fantasy, part mystery, this suspenseful tale is completely unforgettable.
In Eliott’s fantasy novel, an assassin’s contract leads him into a mystery.
Vazeer the Lash is, by his own admission, a villain. But villainy is relative in Hell’s Labyrinth, formally known as Sullward, a crime-ridden city in which survival comes at the edge of a blade. When he bids on a mysterious and lucrative contract, Vazeer is drawn into a treacherous game. The assignment is the elimination of Count Ulan Gueritus, a known torturer nicknamed The Raving Blade who mutilates and brands his victims. Amenable to a justifiable homicide, Vazeer joins a team of five fellow criminals in an elaborate scheme to hunt the target in his own home, posing as expected guests. As their tenuous plans unravel, the conspirators discover that nothing is as it seems, including the identity of their target. Blending beautiful prose (“In the claustrophobic web of alleyways, the air was as smothering as a horse blanket, textured even, to the point where you could separate out its various threads of sour pungency and dull sweetness”) and gritty suspense, the novel keeps the reader on edge with every passing page. Though the action is intense, the violence is seldom graphic. Vazeer the Lash repeatedly justifies his moniker in his fight to survive, proving to be a thoughtful antihero who, despite a flippant demeanor, struggles with the cruelty of his world. Evolving over the course of the story, Vazeer commits to letting go of his dark and tortuous past—but it appears that the darkness is not yet done with Vazeer.
Part fantasy, part mystery, this suspenseful tale is completely unforgettable.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9798986706504
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Further Press
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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