A leisurely but entertaining finale to a rewarding treasure-hunting series.
In this conclusion to an adventure trilogy, two intrepid friends comb western Asia for the legendary holy robe of Jesus.
In years past, writer Granger Lawton has sought fortunes with his treasure hunter best friend, Bobby McAllister. While the rewards have been sizable, Lawton has never liked the near-death experiences that seem to accompany their escapades. But McAllister assures Lawton that his latest quest will be risk-free. McAllister wants to find the robe of Jesus. The treasure hunter feels this is his destiny; he was born on Christmas Day. Lawton, McAllister and his wife, and assorted bodyguards and archaeologists sail to places like Jerusalem and Istanbul for leads on the robe’s location. Sadly, the danger Lawton hoped to avoid finds the group, as one team member winds up with a bullet in the head. Meanwhile, retired American cop Frank Kipper has eyes on the expedition. He may be more invested in vengeance, as he blames McAllister for his niece’s death years ago and an injury that “resulted in his early retirement from law enforcement.” The already arduous task of tracking down a religious artifact becomes increasingly precarious, especially with a mole planted by Kipper on McAllister’s team. While this novel showcases less action than earlier installments, Ferguson makes up for it in suspense. For example, Lawton suspects a team member’s suicide is actually a second murder and that someone is furtively stunting his attempts to investigate it. Armed religious zealots also prove a menace as the group seemingly gets close to discovering the robe. The author livens up the tale with Lawton and McAllister’s constant but often affectionate bickering, which returning readers will surely expect. Although this story is the series’ most deliberately paced, it lingers on stunning scenery, including in Istanbul: “From the Dolmabahce Palace to the green parks and imperial pavilions of Yildiz Palace…ornate and marble facades” were reflected “in the swiftly moving water.” Furthermore, Ferguson delivers a satisfying ending to both this installment and the trilogy.
A leisurely but entertaining finale to a rewarding treasure-hunting series.Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4820-8
Page Count: 486
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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
Feeney improves on her debut with a taut suspense plot, many gleeful twists and turns, and suspects galore.
A news presenter and a police detective are brought together by murders in the British village where they both grew up.
There is precious little that can be revealed about the plot of Feeney’s third novel without spoilers, as the author has woven surprises and plot twists and suspicious linkages into nearly every one of her brief, first-person chapters, written in three alternating narrative voices. “Hers” is Anna Andrews, a wannabe anchor on a BBC news program whose lucky break comes when the body of one of her school friends is found brutally murdered in their hometown, a woodsy little spot called Blackdown. “His” is DCI Jack Harper, head of the Major Crime Team in Blackdown, where major crimes were rather few until now. The third is unnamed but clearly the killer’s. Happily, none of the three is an unreliable narrator—good thing because plenty of people are sick of that—but none is exactly 100% forthcoming either. Which only makes sense, because you can't have reveals without secrets. In a small town like Blackdown, everybody knows everybody, so it’s not too surprising that Anna and Jack have a tragic past or that each has connections to all the victims and suspects while not being totally free from suspicion themselves. Who is that sneaky third narrator? On the way to figuring that out, expect high school mean girls, teen lesbian action, mutilated corpses, nasty things happening to kittens, and—as seems de rigueur in British thrillers—plenty of drinking and wisecracks, sometimes in tandem. “Sadly, my sister has the same taste in wine as she does in men; too cheap, too young, and headache-inducing.”
Feeney improves on her debut with a taut suspense plot, many gleeful twists and turns, and suspects galore.Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26608-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK TO SCREEN
© 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.
