Developed with the skill typical of Barnard (The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori, 1999, etc.), all the more potent for...
A genteel inquiry into the grave problem of what happens when one’s future is shanghaied by one’s past. Soccer star–turned–media personality Matt Harper has just bought Elderholm, a rambling house in Leeds, with plans to settle down with his love Aileen and her three children. Surveying the attic with an architect, they discover a tiny body that DI Charlie Peace identifies as a two-year-old who died 30 years ago. That time-frame fits the year Matt lived in Leeds with his auntie and played five-a-side soccer with his mates. Several of those mates have passed on; one has become a lush; still another is as smug and cantankerous as ever, at least according to Matt’s memory. When DI Peace admits that a death so long ago will scarcely be a top priority for the CID, Matt perseveres on his own, interviewing those five-a-side chums, figuring out just who lived in which house back then, and tracking down a hippie squatter couple and their lovechild—as well as the identity of one ballplayer’s emotionally warped secret mentor whose ideas were passed down to bad effect.
Developed with the skill typical of Barnard (The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori, 1999, etc.), all the more potent for dispensing with flash, gore, and melodrama.Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-684-87379-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The novel rewards the reader’s patience: There are complications, deliberations and a riveting resolution.
A mystery that is perfectly in tune with the times, as the ravages of the recession and the reach of the Internet complicate a murder that defies easy explanation within a seemingly loving household.
The Irish author continues to distinguish herself with this fourth novel, marked by psychological acuteness and thematic depth. As has previously been the case, a supporting character from a prior work (Faithful Place, 2010, her third and best) takes center stage, as Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy attempts to penetrate the mystery of what transpired during a night that left a husband and two children dead and a wife barely clinging to life, with injuries that couldn’t have been self-inflicted. Or could they? This is the most claustrophobic of French’s novels, because the secrets seemingly lie within that household and with those who were either murdered or attacked within it. The setting is an upscale property development at what had once been Broken Harbor, where Kennedy’s family had itself suffered a fatal trauma decades earlier. The property development has been left unfinished due to the economic downturn, which had also cost Patrick Spain his job. He and his wife, Jenny, had done their best to keep up appearances, with their marriage seemingly in harmony. Then came the attack that left Patrick and their two children dead and Jenny in intensive care. The investigative net cast by Kennedy and his younger partner encompasses Jenny’s sister and some of their longtime friends, but the focus remains on the insular family. Had Patrick gone insane? Had Jenny? Was this a horrific murder-suicide or had someone targeted a family that had no apparent enemies? Says Scorcher, “In every way there is, murder is chaos. Our job is simple, when you get down to it: we stand against that, for order.” Yet Scorcher’s own sanity, or at least his rigid notions of right and wrong, will fall into question in a novel that turns the conventional notions of criminals and victims topsy-turvy.
The novel rewards the reader’s patience: There are complications, deliberations and a riveting resolution.Pub Date: July 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02365-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
Veteran crime reporter Connelly's (The Black Ice, 1993) third novel deftly blends cop thriller and courtroom drama in a darkly gripping tale structured around a set of gruesome serial killings. Gritty LA homicide detective Harry Bosch acted recklessly when he killed a man who may or may not have been the serial killer known as the "Dollmaker" for the makeup he applied to his victim's faces after he raped and murdered them. Four years and a big demotion later Bosch stands trial for the murder of Norman Church — whose widow, with the help of her tough-cookie lawyer, asserts that Church was not the Dollmaker. Bosch's confidence that he got the right guy crumbles as the prosecution provides an airtight alibi for one of the murders and as another victim (a buxom blond porn star slayed after Church's death) is uncovered from a concrete grave. Our clever, instinctive hero quickly discovers that the murders were committed by two men — one of them a copycat still on the prowl. To vindicate himself and save future victims, Bosch stands trial by day and hunts for the killer at night. A sordid premise becomes thornier and more chilling as Bosch realizes that the copycat is a colleague — an insider in the Dollmaker case. Suspects include Bosch's turncoat ex-partner, a shifty vice-squad cop, a journalist who reported on the Dollmaker, and an eccentric professor of psychosexual behavior. The courses of the trial and the investigation collide in an intricately plotted and turbo-charged conclusion safely arrived at by Bosch's cunning, foresight, and trademark intuition. Cliches persist in characters like the brassy woman lawyer, the foolish bureaucrat, and the hero with a tarnished heart of gold. But the charming, if retro, writing ("The courtroom seemed as silent as a dead man's heart") and the lurid thrills make this gem as lovable as any tale of serial murder can be.
Pub Date: June 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-316-15383-4
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
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