An enjoyable tale with plenty of suspense and the bonus of intriguing medical details.
In this thriller, a devious serial killer remains on the loose in an Arizona hospital—will the culprit be discovered and stopped before the next victim dies?
Dr. Maya Summer is the hero of Miller’s tale. She is the harried public health director for a Phoenix hospital who also mentors medical residents who will soon be out on their own. Then there’s her self-effacing colleague Alex Reddish and her love interest, the rich and handsome cardiac surgeon Whitaker Thicket. Resident Jim Barrow is OK some days and spacey on others. What is his problem? Another resident is the flirty and presumptuous Veronica Sampson. At first, no one suspects there’s a killer. But after some party punch is spiked and Alex’s bike is tampered with, it soon becomes apparent that someone is up to no good. Between chapters, there are short passages from the killer’s journal—typical aggrieved and egotistical stuff. The Maya-Whit romance finally sours—he was by turns bullying and needy—so will something good happen with Maya and Alex? Unfortunately, Alex’s life may be in serious danger. Miller is not only an experienced novelist, but also a retired doctor, so readers learn a lot about local diseases (valley fever, West Nile, etc.) and drugs both natural and human-made. In that sense, the book is not just entertaining, but educational as well. A subplot, well handled, concerns Maya’s harassment by bikers (she is trying to get the Arizona helmet law reinstated) and a tragic accident in her past. There are also the requisite minor characters, like the grumpy but wise retired physician who counsels Maya and the sweet neighbor kid who loves horses. Phoenix, with its punishing summer weather beautifully described (“The sky stood dazed, a feeble ruined blue”), is almost a character itself, which perhaps explains the gripping novel’s ominous title. A few readers may guess the killer’s identity before the finale. The murderer, like Iago, displays a “motiveless malignity,” which always complicates matters.
An enjoyable tale with plenty of suspense and the bonus of intriguing medical details.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64779-016-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Univ. of Nevada
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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