A grim but riveting deconstructed superhero tale.
In Bruno’s moody thriller, a former masked vigilante searches for whomever stole—and donned—his crime-fighting suit as a killer stalks the city he once protected.
For decades, Reese Roberts was the Roach. He stymied and/or killed criminals in Iron City. One night in 1980, as the Roach stopped an assault on a woman, a bullet to the spine put him in a wheelchair permanently. Because the woman was Laura Garrity, the mayor’s daughter, Reese avoided jail time for his vigilantism and has maintained his secret for the past five years. He’s now getting by, thanks mostly to Laura’s help, though Reese is so unhappy he’s pondering suicide. His armored suit goes missing from the Roach’s “lair,” and newspaper articles about the Roach’s alleged comeback means there’s a copycat. Also in the news: A vicious killer in Iron City seems to be targeting people related to crimes the faux Roach has thwarted. Reese has to track down this homicidal villain before further lives are lost. Identifying the murderer, however, stirs up his past—including one dreadful revelation. Readers will certainly see shades of Batman in this novel, including Reese’s Batcave-esque lair. Nevertheless, Bruno builds characters with complex backstories, from Reese and Laura to teenage Isaac, whom Reese befriends. The story overall is somber; along with its gloomy histories is a dark setting—rain perpetually drenches Iron City, which largely consists of trash, dumpsters, and alleyways. The titular hero is indelible; Reese demonstrates how capable a person with a disability can be. At the same time, he’s a hard guy to like. He wallows in an apathy that has seemingly buried the valiant reason he originally became the Roach.
A grim but riveting deconstructed superhero tale. (author bio)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-949890-65-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Aethon Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2020
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
This mystery’s promising premise bogs down in an overloaded cast.
When one woman takes on another’s identity to uncover a crime, they both become suspects in a murder.
Aubrey Price and Camille Bayliss come from different worlds, only crossing paths because of the discovery that Camille’s husband, powerful lawyer Ben Bayliss, is hiding something terrible that affects them both. As the novel opens, Aubrey is driving Camille’s Range Rover, then teetering into a bar on Camille’s high heels, with Camille’s dress and credit cards and a wig that mimics Camille’s hair, pretending to be her because Ben tracks his wife’s every move and expenditure, and Camille wants to create a smokescreen while she sneaks into his office in search of evidence of that unnamed secret. But the scheme goes awry, and the women become each other’s alibis after Camille finds Ben murdered in their home. The first part of the book builds suspense and misdirection well, with Aubrey and Ben’s straight-arrow partner, Hank Landry, serving as first-person observers in some chapters while others track Camille. She’s a wealthy and privileged woman but not a happy one, stuck under the thumbs of her husband and her tyrannical father, Randall Everett, who pretty much runs their small Louisiana town. Aubrey was orphaned as a teen when her parents died in a car crash and has proudly fended for herself ever since, coming to depend on her four roommates, who have become friends. But as the cast of characters grows, it seems as if almost everyone in town has a motive for killing Ben, and the piling up of suspects and movements among different timelines can sometimes be confusing. And it all comes to a frustrating end when, after a whole school of red herrings, the solution to Ben’s murder arrives out of far left field.
This mystery’s promising premise bogs down in an overloaded cast.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780593834459
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
