Like a familiar roller-coaster ride; readers may see where the story’s headed but that doesn’t make it any less exhilarating.
In Nudo’s (Phantom Reunions, 2005, etc.) thriller, three men need only do a small favor to win a big fortune; unforeseen consequences ensue.
Alex Neitzel’s annual trip with little brother Trevor to visit the spot where their sister killed herself takes an unexpected turn. Alex’s car dies, and the men, along with Trevor’s partner, Chad, are stranded. At a nearby cemetery, they help the elderly David Kendrick, who had collapsed. David thanks them with an offer of $50 each if they simply mail a letter for him, promising more money later for more favors. The next one, though, is a doozy—kill David’s wife, which he claims will be a mercy killing—but the pay is commensurate with the request, $5 million to split three ways. The guys seem reluctant but soon are on a trail of lies and murder, especially because $5 million goes a lot farther if it’s split just two ways or not at all. The author’s methodically paced (but never plodding) novel establishes its tone early. David is immediately unnerving. Alex seems like the levelheaded one of the trio, chauffeuring the couple, who are more interested in getting high than finding a way home. Plot twists abound. The initially likable protagonist, with his pregnant wife, Emily, at home, gets decidedly unlikable as the story progresses. But with each appalling act, the characters grow increasingly fascinating. There are so many shocks in Nudo’s book that readers are bound to guess at least some of the developments. But Nudo knows to keep the plot spiraling while allowing a startling event to resonate before the next one occurs.
Like a familiar roller-coaster ride; readers may see where the story’s headed but that doesn’t make it any less exhilarating.Pub Date: July 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4997-0861-5
Page Count: 194
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A super-exorcism that leaves the taste of somebody else's blood in your mouth and what a bad taste it is. King presents us with the riddle of a small Maine town that has been deserted overnight. Where did all the down-Easters go? Matter of fact, they're still there but they only get up at sundown. . . for a warm drink. . . .Ben Mears, a novelist, returns to Salem's Lot (pop. 1319), the hometown he hasn't seen since he was four years old, where he falls for a young painter who admires his books (what happens to her shouldn't happen to a Martian). Odd things are manifested. Someone rents the ghastly old Marsten mansion, closed since a horrible double murder-suicide in 1939; a dog is found impaled on a spiked fence; a healthy boy dies of anemia in one week and his brother vanishes. Ben displays tremendous calm considering that you're left to face a corpse that sits up after an autopsy and sinks its fangs into the coroner's neck. . . . Vampirism, necrophilia, et dreadful alia rather overplayed by the author of Carrie (1974).
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1975
ISBN: 0385007515
Page Count: 458
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1975
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 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.
