An immersive and satisfying addition to the category of Boston crime fiction.
Cass (Burton’s Solo, 2019, etc.) returns to his favorite bar owner and cop in this fourth installment of a detective series.
Things are changing around the old Esposito, the Boston dive that recovering alcoholic Elder Darrow has been dutifully attempting to turn into a reputable bar offering “jazz on the weekends.” Now “you could drink without getting into a fist fight,” Elder drolly brags, “and step outside to smoke without worrying about being mugged.” But there’s a new mob boss in the neighborhood—Donald Maldonado—who has sent one of his underlings around asking about Elder’s on-the-run ex-girlfriend, talented thief Kathleen Crawford. Elder has no idea where she is because Kathleen doesn’t want him to know. Under the name Nina, Kathleen is currently hiding out at the Boston Pre-Release Center. But while on work release at the paupers’ grave on Rinker Island, she accidentally discovers a corpse that shouldn’t be there: a man in an expensive suit with a bullet wound in his head. Elder’s friend homicide detective Dan Burton is called in to investigate the death (and recognizes Kathleen, still at the scene). The dead man turns out to be a local activist with enemies among the city’s rich and powerful, some of the same forces who are currently trying to bring the Olympics to Boston—and tear down half the city to prepare for it. Among the possible targets: the Esposito itself. Cass’ prose is wonderfully textured, evoking both the Boston weather and the fatalistic attitudes of the city’s denizens: “The sun was the color of weak lemonade in a washed-out blue sky, but at least the wind wasn’t blowing in off the water anymore.” The plot is quick and engrossing, and at the center of the crimes and detective work is a highly relatable story of a man who can’t decide whether to cling to the past or surrender to the future. Fans of the previous books in the series will appreciate this offering, but those new to the Esposito can also enjoy this self-contained narrative—and maybe even become regulars.
An immersive and satisfying addition to the category of Boston crime fiction.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Encircle Publications
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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