A short but kinetic tale featuring a consistently entertaining hero.
A clergyman of action tries to capture a former U.S. government agent on the run in this latest installment of a thriller series.
Long Island, New York–based pastor Stephen Grant heads to the French Alps for a nearly three-week retreat at a monastery. The trip, whose highlight is sampling the monks’ much-praised French chocolate, takes an unexpected turn when Grant unexpectedly sees the fugitive Hunter Bryant among the monastery’s visitors. This disgraced former CIA agent shook America when he stole sensitive files and gave them to Garth Bellanger, who’s known for posting secret information publicly. In this case, it’s a list of CIA assets around the world whose exposure has resulted in numerous deaths. Grant, who’s also a former CIA operative as well as an ex–Navy SEAL, hopes to bring Bryant to justice and ultimately seeks help from friends at CDM International Strategies and Security. Sean McEnany, the “M” in CDM, is particularly eager to find Bryant, as one of the list’s casualties was a former colleague of his. Unfortunately, Bryant manages to get out a distress signal, causing Bellanger to send mercenary bodyguards to France. With any luck, Grant can hold off the mercenaries until CDM comes to his aid. Keating, the author of Deep Rough (2019), delivers a relatively brief adventure, but as in the author’s earlier books, it’s a swiftly paced one. Several characters return from previous installments, but the story wisely zeroes in on Grant, McEnany, and Bryant. Exciting, tightly written action scenes comprise the final act, but there’s humor sprinkled throughout the narrative, as well. For example, characters repeatedly praise the French chocolate and request that Grant bring some back to America; apparently, the monks won’t ship it overseas. Keating’s series is often grim, but this installment seems a bit darker than others, featuring a particularly violent death and a surprisingly bleak moment involving a series regular.
A short but kinetic tale featuring a consistently entertaining hero.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-70920-977-2
Page Count: 159
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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