The heroine possesses the competence and charm of any other literary private investigator, with a lively band of characters...
An architect ventures out on her own to find a missing 12-year-old girl when cops zero in on a renowned—and possibly innocent—colleague in this thriller.
Iris Reid faces a full schedule, designing a town house and getting ready to teach a class at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. She meets visiting professor Xander DeWitt, a well- known Dutch architect, just prior to the fall semester. They share a meal or two, with Iris relishing the man’s devotion to his craft and hoping chef/cafe owner boyfriend Luc doesn’t misconstrue her fascination with Xander. But when young Lara Kurjak suddenly vanishes, Iris becomes unwittingly embroiled in the case. Cops, for starters, fixate on Xander, whose office Lara had recently paid a visit, and Iris may be his alibi. On the night in question, she had walked her basset hound Sheba in Xander’s neighborhood, seeing him at home when momentarily peering into his window. Her student Jasna Sidran, meanwhile, has been helping Lara escape her abusive father, Ivano, who plans to force his daughter into an arranged marriage in Bosnia when she turns 13. Lara’s unexplained disappearance from Jasna’s place seems to confirm that someone’s abducted her. Iris, believing cops may be wrong about Xander, investigates but soon realizes that the fellow architect she admires could very well be the culprit. Cory (Conundrum, 2012) gleefully breezes through subplots and twists with a resourceful protagonist at the helm. Iris’ position of pseudo-detective is organic; her motives fluctuate (prove Xander’s innocence or find Lara) but there’s always a credible rationale pushing her forward. Supporting characters are outstanding, from self-proclaimed “saintly friend” Ellie and attorney brother Sterling to tactless reporter Budge Buchanan, who makes a shockingly good sidekick. Further complications ensue, including a potential reason for Iris to distrust Luc. Readers may question some of Iris’ choices. She, for example, doesn’t tell police about a suspicious van for fear that Jasna’s actions will get her student visa revoked—even though it’s presumably the kidnapper’s vehicle. But with Iris herself oscillating between belief in Xander and leeriness, the ending is bound to surprise most.
The heroine possesses the competence and charm of any other literary private investigator, with a lively band of characters by her side.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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