An often enjoyable novel with surprising turns.
In Brandon’s thriller, a logical FBI agent teams up with an intuitive psychic to find a kidnapped child in a case that may be connected to a decades-old case.
It’s 1989, and Ryan Cornell has been on desk duty at the bureau’s San Francisco branch since an abduction case he was investigating went horribly wrong six months prior, resulting in a woman’s death. Now, the same kidnapper, Thomas Jackson, has returned, this time victimizing Steven Taylor, an 11-year-old. Steven’s wealthy grandfather Jake insists that the FBI bring psychic Annie Johnson into the investigation. Cornell’s and Johnson’s opinions about the supernatural may clash, but they agree that rescuing Steven is their top priority. As the case continues, Johnson has visions of a past life in 1906, during which her own child was kidnapped. That long-ago case illuminates the present one, but time is ticking away, as the kidnapper has given Steven’s family a deadline of 24 hours to deliver a $50 million ransom or else he’ll murder the boy. But Jackson, a Vietnam vet, also wants fame and fortune, and he’s willing to do anything to get it. Working with him is Mai King, a ruthless, lawless woman: “This was going to be a good partnership,” Jackson thinks at one point. “If not, he could always kill her.” The cast of characters in Brandon’s thriller is eclectic: Cornell and Johnson’s interactions as skeptic and believer are fun and engaging, and Jackson is a remarkably complex villain. However, other minor characters feel underdeveloped, and some dialogue feels a bit forced and unnatural. There are also numerous points when the story stops dead to provide exposition, slowing the brisk pace. However, the author wonderfully weaves the 1989 and 1906 storylines together, effectively developing the twisty plot.
An often enjoyable novel with surprising turns.Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2022
ISBN: 979-8410690003
Page Count: 292
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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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BOOK REVIEW
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