As formulaic as its predecessor, this is still a good, lightweight read. And we always knew that Poe and Alana would weather...
Welcome to paradise, and the further adventures of Poe and Foxx and the lovely Alana Hu, where the only thing to spoil the fun is the occasional murder.
In his sequel, mystery writer Stephens (The Drayton Diaries, 2014, etc.) is back with his hero, Edgar Allen “Poe” Rutherford, who has relocated to Maui, probably for good. Poe was lured there originally by his old friend Doug Foxx, and it did not take long before Poe fell in love with Detective Alana Hu of the Lahaina Police Department (though now they have “issues,” alas). Anyway, the gang’s all here, and here comes Alana’s sister, Hani, and her fiance, Panos Laskaris, soon to be married. Panos is a real charmer, but he has made a bunch of enemies, so we’re not really surprised when he is found on his boat on the eve of the wedding with his throat slashed. The suspects are plenty: Peter Bell, whom Panos had cheated out of that boat; Wes, Panos’ partner in a restaurant, whom he had hung out to dry; Hani’s old boyfriend, Makani, and his hot-tempered brother, Kai. Or maybe Jim, the talented chef that Panos had also treated badly. With no credentials whatever—just like the last time—Poe is on the case. Things take an interesting turn when Peter Bell turns up dead. The incompetent and infuriating Detective Adcock is Poe’s nemesis, but our hero is ever the undaunted smart aleck, one step ahead. The case gets solved and wrapped up, of course, not without the requisite red herrings and late revelations. For an amateur detective, Poe isn’t chopped liver. And we get a teaser at the end that there will be more cases coming. Oh, and Poe and Alana seem to be back on track. In this paradise, not only are all the guys hunky and all the gals gorgeous, but Poe and Foxx are both independently wealthy. A sophomoric dream, but such entertainments don’t pretend to be Crime and Punishment.
As formulaic as its predecessor, this is still a good, lightweight read. And we always knew that Poe and Alana would weather their private storm.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1505362909
Page Count: 210
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not the best of Connelly’s procedurals, but nobody else does them better than his second-best.
A snap of the yo-yo string yanks Harry Bosch out of retirement yet again.
Los Angeles Councilman Jake Pearlman has resurrected the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit in order to reopen the case of his kid sister, Sarah, whose 1994 murder was instantly eclipsed in the press by the O.J. Simpson case when it broke a day later. Since not even a councilor can reconstitute a police unit for a single favored case, Det. Renée Ballard and her mostly volunteer (read: unpaid) crew are expected to reopen some other cold cases as well, giving Bosch a fresh opportunity to gather evidence against Finbar McShane, the crooked manager he’s convinced executed industrial contractor Stephen Gallagher, his wife, and their two children in 2013 and buried them in a single desert grave. The case has haunted Bosch more than any other he failed to close, and he’s fine to work the Pearlman homicide if it’ll give him another crack at McShane. As it turns out, the Pearlman case is considerably more interesting—partly because the break that leads the unit to a surprising new suspect turns out to be both fraught and misleading, partly because identifying the killer is only the beginning of Bosch’s problems. The windup of the Gallagher murders, a testament to sweating every detail and following every lead wherever it goes, is more heartfelt but less wily and dramatic. Fans of the aging detective who fear that he might be mellowing will be happy to hear that “putting him on a team did not make him a team player.”
Not the best of Connelly’s procedurals, but nobody else does them better than his second-best.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-48565-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
