A satisfying mystery filled with intriguing characters.
In Daigle’s thriller, a Laguna Beach police detective and a local reporter become involved in an investigation that changes the trajectories of their own lives.
Ray Stone, formerly of the LAPD (until he blew his cover during a major sting operation), is biding his time in California’s sleepy, artsy town of Laguna Beach. He misses the adrenaline-fueled high-octane police work of Los Angeles and is waiting for a chance to redeem himself. Early in the morning on New Year’s Day, 1969, a call comes in from dispatch: “Dead body at Shaw’s Cove.” The victim is Amelia Hart, a wealthy 50-something member of the artistic community and an anti-war activist. Her body is badly bruised. The officer on the scene says it is a suicide, but Ray suspects there is more to the story. Meanwhile, Dennis Driver, a reporter with the local Daily Pilot and a Vietnam War veteran, is battling depression and PTSD-like symptoms. On New Year’s Day, he checks the newspaper and sees that his story had been scrapped for one written by a more experienced reporter. When he dejectedly enters the newsroom, his editor hands him an opportunity for his big break: Report on the suspicious death of Amelia Hart. As Ray and Dennis, working separately but occasionally sharing information, begin digging into the secrets hidden behind the glossy facade of Amelia’s life, Daigle leads readers through the dark underbelly of the high-priced art world. The twisty, methodically paced narrative is as much a character study of two men struggling to overcome their inner demons and begin anew as it is an engaging mystery. A skillful wordsmith, Daigle mixes tight dialogue with long descriptive sentences, displaying a passion for similes that occasionally threaten to overwhelm the action: “…he watched the smoke twist and rise, a serpentine signal of the story he was about to unravel.”
A satisfying mystery filled with intriguing characters.Pub Date: June 15, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 229
Publisher: Plan B Publishing Co
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2024
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
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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