An engagingly nerve-wracking tale with gradually escalating suspense.
In Cory’s (Facade, 2016, etc.) latest series thriller, Boston architect and amateur sleuth Iris Reid faces off against an identity thief who becomes a dangerous stalker.
Although Iris makes her living in architecture, she’s previously worked with the police on murder and kidnapping cases. But her latest is her toughest one yet, as cops arrest her for an armed bank robbery that left a guard in critical condition. Security-camera footage from a car rental service shows someone, who certainly looks like her, renting the getaway car. Iris gets out on bail, but authorities don’t seem to buy her claim that her identity was stolen. Readers know that the thief is a woman named Rosica Bakalov, who later pushes her luck by looting Iris’ savings account and severely damaging her credit. Iris begins her search for Rosica by visiting an apartment that the thief rented in Iris’ name. Rosica becomes nervous when she realizes that her pursuer is getting close, but her anxiety soon turns into resentment. She believes that Iris has the life that she should have—including a handsome, successful chef boyfriend, Luc Cormier, whose new restaurant Iris is renovating. So the thief begins to shadow her victim, and her subtle attempts to torment the architect become more overt and increasingly hazardous. By introducing the character of Rosica early, Cory forgoes mystery in favor of suspense. She effectively provides insight into the villain’s mind, revealing it to be unstable and unpredictable. She also deftly establishes Iris as a woman who’s worried about her professional reputation, and introduces a subplot about a yoga instructor who may be a bit too hands-on with Luc. Meanwhile, the plot becomes more unnerving as it progresses, and an impressive twist leads to a lengthy final act featuring Rosica at her most ferocious. Iris, who eventually gets to use the karate that she often practices, is depicted as smart and tenacious, although it turns out that the identity theft is at least partly her own fault. Cory’s concise prose establishes a consistent pace that never wavers, and even her descriptions of architecture are exhilarating.
An engagingly nerve-wracking tale with gradually escalating suspense.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9853702-7-5
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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