McLean’s reliance on endless inner monologue makes his latest entry read like hard-boiled Henry James.
Police offer a Scottish private eye a devil’s bargain when his credentials are threatened.
At first, J. McNee (The Lost Sister, 2011, etc.) is shocked by a letter from the Association of British Investigators telling him that his membership is suspended pending an investigation. McNee killed a man who worked for London gangster Gordon Egg, a thug engaged in a turf war with Dundee’s homegrown hard boy David Burns. Cameron Connelly of the Dundee Herald tells McNee that local police are preparing to charge him. But why reopen the investigation now? McNee wonders. Sandy Griggs of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency has an answer: SCDEA wants McNee’s help in getting close to Burns and will make the charges go away if he cooperates. McNee wants no part of Griggs’ deal. His old partner, Ernie Bright, was killed six months ago after cozying up to Burns. Still, life without ABI membership is tough. His current employer, Andy McDowell, has to let him go. So he accepts an unlikely client. Elizabeth Farnham wants McNee to clear her former neighbor Alex Moorehead. Alex is serving time for killing Elizabeth’s 10-year-old son, Justin, banged up by none other than the late Ernie Bright, who seemed to fixate on Alex early in the case. He’s also suspected of killing a series of other young boys who disappeared near Dundee and were never found. At first McNee is skeptical, since Alex confessed in open court to killing Justin. But although he’s admitted killing Justin, he refuses to talk about the others. As McNee investigates, he learns that all roads lead back to “Dundee’s ‘Godfather’ ” as he finds ties between Burns and the mothers of the disappeared.
McLean’s reliance on endless inner monologue makes his latest entry read like hard-boiled Henry James.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8410-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Tepid terrors along the way to a mildly surprising end.
Suburban thriller from the prolific Coben (No Second Chance, 2002, etc.), about a perfect husband who disappears when a photo from the past shows up in the latest batch from the photomat.
Perfectly in love since their romantic meeting in France 15 years earlier, Jack and Grace Lawson are living the suburban dream: Windstar, Saab, daughter, son. He makes lots of money, she makes lots of art. There is a teeny flaw. Grace limps. It’s the scar she bears from the trauma she endured before the trip to France. There was this rock concert. Shots were fired. Panic. Deaths. Heroism. Cowardice. Badly mangled Grace made it out of a coma with a week or two of memory gone and a healthy dislike of big crowds. Suddenly the superperfect life she has built from the ruins has gone off the rails. Tucked in among a set of newly developed photos is a snap taken sometime in the ’80s. It shows a group of young people, possibly hip for the decade, and one of the lads, while hairier and callower, is clearly Jack. The insertion could only have been at the hands of the slacker in the Kodak kiosk, but he’s disappeared. And, upon viewing the photo, so has Jack, leaving Grace to ask that old reliable story-starting question: “Just who is this man I thought I knew?” Answers must be found quickly, for handsome Jack has been captured by a cold-blooded, sadistic, Korean killer and lies senseless in the boot of the stolen family minivan. Detective assistance comes from a rogue District Attorney, a wacky girlfriend, a lovelorn neighbor, a tough Jewish cop with a hole in his heart where his wife used to be, a shadowy, powerful mob guy whose son died at the rock concert, and possibly from Jimmy X, the rocker whose concert seems to have started the present subdivisional mayhem all those years ago.
Tepid terrors along the way to a mildly surprising end.Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-94791-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2004
The moral overcomes the mystery in this sobering cautionary tale.
A hard-partying flight attendant runs afoul of Russian conspirators.
Cassandra Bowden, like her namesake, the prophetess who is never believed, has problems. A flight attendant since college, Cassie, now nearing 40, has a penchant for drinking to the blackout point and sleeping with strange men. On a flight to Dubai, while serving in first class, she flirts with hedge fund manager Alex Sokoloff, an American with Russian roots and oligarchic connections. She repairs to his hotel room, and during the drunken bacchanal that follows, Miranda, apparently a business acquaintance of Alex’s, visits with more vodka. The next morning Cassie wakes up next to Alex, who lies dead, his throat cut. She has blacked out much of the night, so although she’d grown rather fond of him, how can she be sure she didn’t kill him? Rushing back for the return flight, she decides not to disclose what happened, at least not until she's back home in New York City, where the justice system is arguably less draconian than in Dubai. At JFK, the FBI interviews the deplaning crew, and Cassie plays dumb. Unfortunately, her walk of shame through the hotel lobby was captured on security cam. Sporadically intercut with Cassie’s point of view is that of Elena, a Russian assassin for hire, who had presented herself as Miranda in Alex’s hotel room. After being thwarted by Cassie’s presence from executing Alex then, she returned to finish the job but decided not to make collateral damage of his passed-out bedmate, a bad call she must rectify per her sinister handler, Viktor. In the novel’s flabby midsection, Cassie continues to alternately binge-drink and regret the consequences as her lawyer, her union, and even the FBI struggle to protect her from herself. Although Bohjalian (The Sleepwalker, 2017, etc.) strives to render Cassie sympathetic, at times he can’t resist taking a judgmental stance toward her. As Cassie’s addiction becomes the primary focus, the intricate plotting required of an international thriller lags.
The moral overcomes the mystery in this sobering cautionary tale.Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-385-54241-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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