An enthusiastic plot and a swift pace combine with gritty characters in a satisfying thriller.
An aging private investigator tackles a missing person case amid the new millennium in Southern California in this novel.
Canadian author Elliott continues his Angel City series with the adventures of Los Angeles detective Mickey O’Rourke, a hardworking widower who drives a red 1969 Pontiac Catalina convertible, misses his wife, and embodies an ageless tenacity to solve crimes. As a veteran sleuth in his late 70s in 2000, he’s seen everything, so meeting his latest client, Bethany Summers, at her San Fernando Valley porn studio job is nothing to squirm over. The case (which he admits may be his last) involves the sudden disappearance of Jeffrey Strokes, an award-winning, highly compensated porn star on the rise. Running alongside O’Rourke’s investigation is the simmering history two years prior of East Compton couple Jemeka Johnson, a hair stylist, and her boyfriend, Ray-Ray, whom she suspects of being unfaithful. She follows him one night and ends up staring down the barrel of a drug-dealing gangster’s gun during a botched deal. A third subplot, occurring in 1999, features Richie and Alabama, a downtrodden couple subsisting on petty theft, violence, and heroin. They descend on LA to deal and partake in everything the edgy city has to offer—notably, a “big score” involving Strokes, who needs their stash to help with his porn star “stamina.” O’Rourke does his work briskly, sifting through possible suspects, from jealous porn co-stars to informants who confess to meeting Strokes’ shifty drug dealer before the actor vanished, including Bethany’s abusive boyfriend, Riccardo Milano, who has lots to hide. The storylines soon intermingle and coalesce on LA’s tense streets, creating a somewhat overly busy yet consistently gripping tale with many parts kept airborne by Elliott, whose prose never wavers from keeping readers engrossed and entertained. As in the author’s debut, Nobody Move (2019), this polished sequel is also a noir affair suffused with meticulous details and characters at the mercy of the druggy Southern California underbelly. Elliott also has an infectious sense of humor evident throughout the story: an actor whose “lips were so blown up they could keep her afloat at sea” and a street punk sporting a Mohawk “so tall it could stab the sun.” The tale delivers plenty of fast-paced action and menacing bad guys to please hardcore fans of crime fiction.
An enthusiastic plot and a swift pace combine with gritty characters in a satisfying thriller.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-99-908683-1
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Into the Void
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.
A travel writer has one last shot at reconnecting with the best friend she just might be in love with.
Poppy and Alex couldn't be more different. She loves wearing bright colors while he prefers khakis and a T-shirt. She likes just about everything while he’s a bit more discerning. And yet, their opposites-attract friendship works because they love each other…in a totally platonic way. Probably. Even though they have their own separate lives (Poppy lives in New York City and is a travel writer with a popular Instagram account; Alex is a high school teacher in their tiny Ohio hometown), they still manage to get together each summer for one fabulous vacation. They grow closer every year, but Poppy doesn’t let herself linger on her feelings for Alex—she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or the way she can be fully herself with him. They continue to date other people, even bringing their serious partners on their summer vacations…but then, after a falling-out, they stop speaking. When Poppy finds herself facing a serious bout of ennui, unhappy with her glamorous job and the life she’s been dreaming of forever, she thinks back to the last time she was truly happy: her last vacation with Alex. And so, though they haven’t spoken in two years, she asks him to take another vacation with her. She’s determined to bridge the gap that’s formed between them and become best friends again, but to do that, she’ll have to be honest with Alex—and herself—about her true feelings. In chapters that jump around in time, Henry shows readers the progression (and dissolution) of Poppy and Alex’s friendship. Their slow-burn love story hits on beloved romance tropes (such as there unexpectedly being only one bed on the reconciliation trip Poppy plans) while still feeling entirely fresh. Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. But there’s depth to the story, too—Poppy’s feeling of dissatisfaction with a life that should be making her happy as well as her unresolved feelings toward the difficult parts of her childhood make her a sympathetic and relatable character. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own.
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0675-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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