A twisty and highly readable thriller that’s occasionally hampered by cop-fiction clichés.
An unconventional detective hunts for a killer among the churches of New Orleans in Zappa’s latest police procedural.
Detective Lt. Jo Crowder and Detective Sgt. Sid Steele catch a murder case in the middle of Easter Weekwhen the body of young girl is found dumped on the steps of St. Stephan’s Cathedral, one of the oldest and most venerated churches for the 3.5 million Catholics who call the Big Easy home. The head of the city’s Violent Crime and Homicide Division, Frank O’Malley, reflects glumly on the fact that his town is statistically “the fourth most dangerous city in which to live and visit,” but he knows that 36-year-old Crowder will get results. She not only has degrees in criminal justice and forensic science; she’s also an expert marksman, has black belts in judo and karate, and has the highest case-closure rate in the department by far. In addition, she’s completely consumed by her job: “she ate it, drank it, and lived it day and night. It made her irrepressible, confident and bold.” She and Steele, her partner of three years, begin sifting clues and sorting suspects, but the process is unexpectedly complicated by an unstable copycat who is all too eager to confess to the crime; they must also deal with the machinations of scheming District Attorney Max Hellman, “an arrogant, self-centered, showboat opportunist” who manages to thwart their work at every turn. Police finally apprehend a solid-looking suspect named Miguel Diaz, but Crowder’s instincts are telling her that they have the wrong man.
Zappa assembles relatively standard crime-thriller elements in a satisfying manner that will appeal to fans of Ed McBain or Jeffery Deaver’s sturdy procedurals. Crowder is clearly the star of the show here; indeed, the author doesn’t bother to restrain his own admiration for his hero. She can be short-tempered and doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but she’s otherwise essentially perfect, resembling the older-and-wiser version of FBI agent Clarice Starling in Thomas Harris’ 1999 thriller sequel, Hannibal. Religious elements play a key role in the narrative, as Crowder’s suspicions quickly fall on a respected churchman of New Orleans—an explosive development that could easily get her cashiered if it misfires; the fact that she’s an agnostic working a religiously charged case makes the situation even more delicate. Zappa beautifully captures these multifaceted tensions in a way that keeps the story moving along at an easy clip. However, the prose shows a decided weakness for cop-show cliches; for instance, does anyone actually say “Bingo” when figuring something out, as fictional cops often do? Habitual readers of police thrillers will undoubtedly have plenty of patience when the story introduces a crusty coroner or when Crowder advises Steele to “Think outside the box,” but such moments still manage to feel like unnecessary filler. The book’s climax, by contrast, is a marvel of suspenseful precision, and the key confrontation at the story’s conclusion will have readers holding their breath.
A twisty and highly readable thriller that’s occasionally hampered by cop-fiction clichés.Pub Date: April 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-922329-15-8
Page Count: 351
Publisher: AIA Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.
When a man accused of rape turns up dead, an Early American town seeks justice amid rumors and controversy.
Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here. As Martha tells her patient in an opening chapter set in 1789, “You need not fear….In all my years attending women in childbirth, I have never lost a mother.” This track record grows in numerous compelling scenes of labor and delivery, particularly one in which Martha has to clean up after the mistakes of a pompous doctor educated at Harvard, one of her nemeses in a town that roils with gossip and disrespect for women’s abilities. Supposedly, the only time a midwife can testify in court is regarding paternity when a woman gives birth out of wedlock—but Martha also takes the witness stand in the rape case against a dead man named Joshua Burgess and his living friend Col. Joseph North, whose role as judge in local court proceedings has made the victim, Rebecca Foster, reluctant to make her complaint public. Further complications are numerous: North has control over the Ballard family's lease on their property; Rebecca is carrying the child of one of her rapists; Martha’s son was seen fighting with Joshua Burgess on the day of his death. Lawhon weaves all this into a richly satisfying drama that moves suspensefully between childbed, courtroom, and the banks of the Kennebec River. The undimmed romance between 40-something Martha and her husband, Ephraim, adds a racy flair to the proceedings. Knowing how rare the quality of their relationship is sharpens the intensity of Martha’s gaze as she watches the romantic lives of her grown children unfold. As she did with Nancy Wake in Code Name Hélène (2020), Lawhon creates a stirring portrait of a real-life heroine and, as in all her books, includes an endnote with detailed background.
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780385546874
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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