Crais spikes this predictable, foolproof yarn with so many surprises and such a masterly command of pace that you’ll find...
After eight entertainingly laid-back mysteries starring Elvis Cole (L.A. Requiem, 1999, etc.), Crais tightens the screws to the max in this white-hot crossover thriller about a cop on the trail of a serial bomber.
Three years ago, Carol Starkey was abruptly retired from the LAPD’s Bomb Squad by an explosive that killed both her and her supervisor/lover. She was brought back to life after two minutes of flatlining; he wasn’t. Now that she’s working at Criminal Conspiracy, she’s the obvious choice to head the investigation when a bomb kills her old colleague Charlie Riggio. And even though her own ordeal left her dead in more ways than one, she’s a terrific choice, too, because right from the start she makes things happen. She realizes that the bomb must have been detonated by remote control, and that the killer must therefore have been on the scene. When ATF agent Jack Pell links the murder to half a dozen earlier bombings-for-hire and assassinations of explosives experts, she joins forces with Pell in an uneasy romance that keeps the case in the LAPD corral. And, inevitably, she finds herself online with Mr. Red, the gleefully self-advertising bomber obsessed with making the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list (and evidently imitating his fictional model Hannibal Lecter). But not all Starkey’s calls turn out golden, and one of them sparks a shocking plot twist that brings the globe-hopping Mr. Red, who’d been perfectly happy killing people in faraway jurisdictions, back to the City of Angels. Soon enough, Starkey’s been frozen out of the case, forced to go up against Mr. Red with only Pell for backup.
Crais spikes this predictable, foolproof yarn with so many surprises and such a masterly command of pace that you’ll find yourself checking the clock every ten pages. Make sure it’s not digital.Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-385-49584-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2000
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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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