Silky-smooth cop-thriller, Woods's first since Chiefs (1981)- -only this one's set not in the author's usual deep South (Palindrome, 1990; Grass Roots, 1989, etc.), but in N.Y.C., where Stone Barrington, lawyer-turned-cop, must solve the case of a skydiving celebrity. It's a case because veteran-skydiver/TV-news-star Sasha Nijinsky wasn't wearing a parachute when she dove from her 12th- story penthouse as Stone, passing by, watched in horror. Was she pushed? Stone wants to ask her but can't—not because she's dead, although everyone but Stone assumes she is (he thinks her skydiving skills may have kept her alive), but because she's missing: the ambulance that picked her up crashed, and when the smoked cleared, Nijinsky was gone. The police brass want Stone to find her or her body fast—and whoever might have pushed her. Stone combs the city (drawn in high glitz as the action veers from Elaine's to the Four Seasons to the U.N. Plaza) and digs out three likely culprits: snooty Barron Harkness, whose TV-anchorship Nijinsky coveted (and whose sexy assistant, Cary Hilliard, soon shares Stone's bed); creepy Herbert Van Fleet, an upscale necrophiliac undertaker who'd written thousands of love letters to Nijinsky; and stoical Hank Morgan, a lesbian makeup artist who was carrying on with the missing star. When evidence points to Morgan, the brass, hungry to close the case, railroad her arrest—leading to her suicide and, because of his expected protest, to Stone's dismissal from the force. Embittered, Stone hires on with a top law firm, only to work on a case that shows him the dark side of sexy Cary—but not nearly as dark as what awaits him when he gets a written invitation from Nijinsky to join her in Van Fleet's secret chamber of horrors.... Stylish suspense among the gray-flannel/black-velvet set, with a winsome hero and agreeable dollops of sex, gore, and demented mayhem: Woods's best since Under the Lake.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-06-017925-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1991
Determined to shield her family from violence, a woman becomes a fierce freelance crime fighter in this mostly satisfying...
In the aftermath of a horrific crime, a woman makes herself over into a powerful protector—or perhaps an avenger.
Pinter (The Castle, 2019, etc.) already has the Henry Parker thriller series under his belt. In this book he introduces another potential series character, Rachel Marin. The story opens with a warm domestic scene of a young woman making dinner for her husband and two kids when a shattering (but undescribed) discovery intervenes. Jump ahead seven years, and single mom Rachel is living in another town several states away. When a mugger jumps her as she’s walking home from work, she leaves him bleeding in the street and hurries home to her bookish son, Eric, and sweet little daughter, Megan. Keeping them safe is her mission in life. But when she sees a news report about a body found on the ice beneath a nearby bridge, she’s riveted. The cops assigned to the case, detectives John Serrano and Leslie Tally, are shocked to discover the body is that of the town’s disgraced former mayor, Constance Wright. They’re even more shocked when Rachel, whom they don’t know, sends Serrano a message that the death was no suicide: “Constance Wright was murdered. And I can prove it.” When Serrano and Tally go to question Wright’s sketchy ex-husband, Rachel shows up at the same time, and they don’t know whether to order her away or be grateful for her help. Pinter builds a complex plot on the dual mysteries of Constance’s murder and Rachel’s transformation from suburban mom to crack investigator and lethal streetfighter. But the story has so many subplots and timelines that it can feel overstuffed, and some crucial questions asked early on are answered so late the reader might be surprised to be reminded of them. Pinter creates engaging characters, though, and keeps the suspense taut.
Determined to shield her family from violence, a woman becomes a fierce freelance crime fighter in this mostly satisfying thriller.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-0590-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is secondhand tough-guy stuff, memorable only in that it feels like you've read it all before.
A former mob enforcer–turned–private eye is called in to investigate the savage murder of a Mafia leg-breaker in New York's Hudson Valley and finds himself on the trail of corporate espionage and a serial killer long believed dead.
The second book in Barron's series featuring Isaiah Coleridge (Blood Standard, 2018) seems, more than the debut, an obvious attempt to establish Coleridge as a strongman smartass in the Jack Reacher mold. The fight scenes are the written equivalent of action-movie choreography but without suspense, because the setup—Isaiah being constantly outnumbered—is so clearly a prelude for the no-sweat beat downs he doles out to the various thugs who get in his way. There's nary a memorable wisecrack in the entire book. What does stick in the mind are the sections that go out of their way to be writerly. It's not enough to say that it was a starry night in the Alaskan wilderness. Coleridge (the name is a clue to the series' literary aspirations) says, "I could've read a book by the cascading illumination of the stars." A later flash of insight is conveyed by "The scalpel of grim epiphany sliced into my consciousness." What with the narrative that spreads like spider cracks in glass and the far-too-frequent flashbacks to the man who was Coleridge's mentor, you might wish another scalpel had made its way through the manuscript.
This is secondhand tough-guy stuff, memorable only in that it feels like you've read it all before.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-1289-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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