A thrill-free actioner that’s the perfect gift for friends who’ve been warned about their high blood pressure.
Once-blind Dr. Kendra Michaels and private eye Jessie Mercado investigate the kidnapping of the world’s most valuable young woman.
With the possible exception of Dr. Allison Walker, who’s tired of hosting her high-profile, paparazzi-rich visits to the Woodward Academy for the Physically Disabled, everyone loves superstar singer Delilah Winter. Her popularity is so immense that Jessie, who headed Dee’s security team before she decided that the star needed a friend more than she needed another employee beholden to her, is surprised that Dee’s scored her and Kendra a pair of tickets to her sold-out concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The two friends agree that it’s a wonderful event, but it ends with a crash when Dee disappears before she can sing an encore and the two bodyguards who are supposed to be protecting her are found dead. The women instantly snap to attention and give chase, but the kidnappers are too quick and too clever for them, and Dee is spirited away and held for a ransom of $20 million, a sum it probably took her several months to earn. Luckily, nobody has to raid her bank account, because her ex-boyfriend, billionaire social network developer Noah Calderon, first offers a reward of $5 million for her safe return, then volunteers to underwrite the entire ransom, since he’s probably made that much since breakfast. The first lovingly detailed ransom drop goes unexpectedly awry, but given the scant investment the Johansens invite readers to make in the new characters, the regulars, or the cookie-cutter suspense, it’s hard to imagine anyone except the heroines losing any sleep over the second.
A thrill-free actioner that’s the perfect gift for friends who’ve been warned about their high blood pressure.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5387-6288-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
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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