by Steve Thayer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1995
Minneapolis/St. Paul weather, already legendary for its dramatic extremes, sparks an even more dramatic series of outrages- -a spate of seasonal murders keyed to freakish weather patterns—in this sprawling novel. The first victim is found strangled in a parking garage opposite the Channel 7 building, home of Sky High News, just before a tornado that sneaks past the National Weather Service radar—but not past the sixth sense of Sky High's obsessive meteorologist, Dixon Graham Bell, who's insisted on a feature slot on the evening news to warn viewers in the storm's path. Subsequent victims—young women who have no apparent tie to one another—are reported in the wake of an eight-inch rainfall, a Minnesota record heat wave, and a brutal ice storm. Coincidence? Police captain Les Angelbeck, hoping to crack the case before emphysema kills him, doesn't think so, especially when he learns of a letter sent to Channel 7 announcing that the killer is on Sky High News, and of a partial fingerprint at the parking garage that implicates Dixon Bell. With no alibis and a long history of romantic rejections, Bell asks producer Rick Beanblossom, who wears a mask to cover the face burned away by napalm, to investigate. The state, having just brought back the death penalty after 80 years, is preparing to burn Bell in the electric chair, despite the pleas of the craven governor's former mistress, beautiful ex-cop-turned-news-anchor Andrea Labore, and of Bell's last, hopeless love. Thayer (Saint Mudd, 1992) feverishly spins out subplots about a graffiti artist, a mocking informant, a lecherous born-again news director, a serial rapist, and a four-year-old kidnapping as the tale hurtles to a scandalous conclusion. No mystery, but a rich, darkly overplotted saga that will wring you dry of tears for every last member of the sorry cast. (First printing of 60,000; Book-of-the-Month Club selection; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-670-84958-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
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by Leigh Bardugo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
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New York Times Bestseller
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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by Leigh Bardugo ; illustrated by Dani Pendergast
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by Lisa Jewell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 5, 2019
This thriller is taut and fast-paced but lacks compelling protagonists.
Three siblings who have been out of touch for more than 20 years grapple with their unsettling childhoods, but when the youngest inherits the family home, all are drawn back together.
At the age of 25, Libby Jones learns she has inherited a large London house that was held in a trust left to her by her birthparents. When she visits the lawyer, she is shocked to find out that she was put up for adoption when she was 10 months old after her parents died in the house in an apparent suicide pact with an unidentified man and that she has an older brother and sister who were teenagers at the time of their parents' deaths and haven't been seen since. Meanwhile, in alternating narratives, we're introduced to Libby's sister, Lucy Lamb, who's on the verge of homelessness with her two children in the south of France, and her brother, Henry Lamb, who's attempting to recall the last few disturbing years with his parents during which they lost their wealth and were manipulated into letting friends move into their home. These friends included the controlling but charismatic David Thomsen, who moved his own wife and two children into the rooms upstairs. Henry also remembers his painful adolescent confusion as he became wildly infatuated with Phineas, David’s teenage son. Meanwhile, Libby connects with Miller Roe, the journalist who covered the story about her family, and the pair work together to find her brother and sister, determine what happened when she was an infant, and uncover who has recently been staying in the vacant house waiting for Libby to return. As Jewell (Watching You, 2018, etc.) moves back and forth from the past to the present, the narratives move swiftly toward convergence in her signature style, yet with the exception of Lucy’s story, little suspense is built up and the twists can’t quite make up for the lack of deep characters and emotionally weighty moments.
This thriller is taut and fast-paced but lacks compelling protagonists.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9010-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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