An imperfect but thrilling tale of bad luck aboard the high seas.
In Brackbill’s fictionalized memoir, an experienced sailor joins an inexperienced crew on an ill-fated journey across the Pacific.
Hawaii, 1993: Preston Brac is manning a table at a bake sale when he happens to meet a woman, Jean, preparing to sail a trimaran from the Big Island all the way to the Caribbean via the Panama Canal. Brac, a former merchant marine and charter boat captain, feels immediate envy. Then, to his surprise, Jean invites him to come along. With the blessings of his wife and children, Preston joins the four-man crew of the Sultan for one last blue-water hurrah—or at least, that’s what he intends it to be. From the first day, however, things begin to get strange. The captain is oddly temperamental and takes fewer safety precautions than any sailor Preston has even met. A weather vane falls and nearly lands on Preston’s head, and the main sail is revealed to be in a state of serious disrepair. Accidents and strange encounters continue to mount, including a dream Preston has in which his dead mother warns him, “Son! If you don’t get off this boat, You Will Die!” (Stranger still, another crew member has her own dream in which she sees Preston speaking to his mother.) Will Preston heed the warning? And what will happen to him—and everyone else aboard the Sultan—if he doesn’t? Brackbill’s prose is slightly stilted, with a bouncy tone that doesn’t always fit with the situations he describes. Here, Preston and the others prepare to fight off a possible pirate boarding party: “I hear anxiousness creep into Jim’s voice. He is so worked up that I expect him to shoot at any moment. Poised in the hatch opening, I grip the shotgun, thinking this is as real as it gets.” The story—which Brackbill presents as true—has a wonderful weirdness, and even if certain elements strain credulity, the reader is more than along for the ride. Readers will never look at a marina of sailboats the same way again.
An imperfect but thrilling tale of bad luck aboard the high seas.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2024
ISBN: 9798991174602
Page Count: 254
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Come for the forensics, stay for the nonhumans.
A Christmas bout between Kay Scarpetta and the Phantom Slasher.
But first, Scarpetta, Virginia’s chief medical examiner, has to figure out how software designer Rowdy O’Leary died. Fished from the Potomac River on Christmas Eve six years after a hit-and-run driver left him permanently disabled and a week after he plunked down the cash for a pricey emerald ring, he fell off his fishing perch and drowned—or did he? Scarpetta’s examination of his body is cut short by two disturbing developments: the discovery of an unidentified woman’s remains buried on the grounds of Mercy Psychiatric Hospital, and celebrity TV reporter Dana Diletti’s report that the red-eyed ghost associated with the Slasher’s three murders has floated through the window of her home. She’s got video, too, and the apparition looks real and scary. The final blow to Scarpetta’s plans for a Christmas getaway with her husband, Secret Service forensic psychologist Benton Wesley, is an attack on an Alexandria home that kills Mercy psychiatrist Georgine Duvall, who used to treat Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy Farinelli, and nearly kills graduate student Zain Willard, White House intern and nephew of presidential candidate Sen. Calvin Willard. This time the Slasher’s ghost has been spotted on the scene by none other than Pete Marino, head of investigations for the medical examiner’s office and Scarpetta’s longtime sidekick. Cornwell’s use of Robbie, Zain’s robotic dog, and Janet, Lucy’s AI companion, integrates the futuristic elements she favors more successfully than in her recent outings. But the solutions to all these mysteries will leave fans of the venerable franchise pursing their lips rather than gasping in awe.
Come for the forensics, stay for the nonhumans.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781538773963
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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