Shames does it again, providing the wise, likable Craddock (A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge, 2015, etc.) with yet another...
A small-town Texas sheriff faces a most peculiar murder case.
Retired police officer Samuel Craddock serves as Jarrett Creek’s sheriff because the town’s broke and can’t afford to pay anyone else. Lately Jarrett Creek’s been buzzing with the news that Nonie Blake, who’s done 20 years in a mental institution since trying to hang her younger sister, is coming home. A few days after she arrives, Craddock gets a call from Charlotte Blake telling him that Nonie has drowned in a pond on the family ranch. The fact that Nonie’s head has been bashed in by an unknown object tells Craddock that he’s got a murder on his hands. The Blake family may have lived in the area for years, but they keep to themselves and apparently have enough money to prevent any of them from having to work. Nonie’s mother, Adelaide, has her hands full caring for her husband, John, who has Parkinson’s disease; their youngest son, Skeeter, who found the body, helps out with his father’s care. The couple’s other son, rodeo rider Billy, who saved Charlotte from being hanged, quickly returns home to support his family. Certain that the motive lies in the past, Craddock quickly learns that Nonie was a manipulative liar, a snoop, and maybe a blackmailer. The steady stream of misinformation he’s fed tells Craddock that Nonie’s not the only liar in the family. The most outrageous falsehood conceals the fact that Nonie was actually released from the institution 10 years ago. Craddock must dig deep into the past of the entire family before he discovers the shocking truth.
Shames does it again, providing the wise, likable Craddock (A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge, 2015, etc.) with yet another quirky mystery with a surprising ending.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63388-120-4
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Seventh Street Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A satisfyingly warped yarn, kissing cousins of Blue Velvet. Readers may be inclined to stay off the Tilt-a-Whirl for a while...
Great. First we have to be afraid of clowns. Now it’s the guy who runs the Ferris wheel.
Yes, clowns are scary, and so are carnies—and if you didn’t have this red light in your mind already, it’s never a good idea to climb (or ride) to great heights during a lightning storm. King (Doctor Sleep, 2013, etc.) turns in a sturdy noir, with just a little of The Shining flickering at the edges, that’s set not in the familiar confines of Maine (though his protagonist is from there) but down along the gloomy coastline of North Carolina, with places bearing such fitting names as Cape Fear and the Graveyard of the Atlantic. His heart newly broken, Devin (Dev, to pals) Jones has taken a summer job at a carnival called Joyland, run by an impossibly old man and haunted by more than a few ghosts. Dev takes a room with crusty Emmalina Shoplaw, “tall, fiftyish, flat-chested, and as pale as a frosted windowpane,” who knows a few secrets. Hell, everyone except Dev knows a few secrets, though no one’s quite put a finger on why so many young women have gone missing around Joyland. Leave it to Dev, an accidental detective, urged along by an eager Lois Lane—well, Erin Cook, anyway. As ever, King writes a lean sentence and a textured story, joining mystery to horror, always with an indignant sense of just how depraved people can be. The story is all the scarier, toward the end, not by the revelation of the bad guy but by his perfectly ordinary desires, even though Joyland is anything but an ordinary place. Even to the last page, though, the body count mounts.
A satisfyingly warped yarn, kissing cousins of Blue Velvet. Readers may be inclined to stay off the Tilt-a-Whirl for a while after diving into these pages.Pub Date: June 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-78116-264-4
Page Count: 283
Publisher: Hard Case Crime
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
As usual in this white-hot series (Fractured, 2008, etc.), the ongoing psychological warfare and the physical violence that...
A Georgia student’s murder is solved all too quickly and violently—in a way that tears apart her community, fuels the hatred between Det. Lena Adams and former Medical Examiner Sara Linton, and promises still further violence.
If it hadn’t been for the telltale cut on the back of her neck, Allison Spooner’s death would have looked like suicide, complete with motive and farewell note. Shortly after Lena realizes that Allison’s been murdered, a routine search of Allison’s place leads to a sudden, bloody confrontation with a masked intruder that leaves all three officers involved—Lena, Det. Brad Stephens and interim police chief Frank Wallace—wounded. Miraculously, the intruder doesn’t escape. Arrested none too gently, Tommy Braham confesses that he killed Allison because she spurned his advances. But his story, though it conveniently fits the facts of the crime, seems to require a killer who’s both more intelligent and less weepy than him. When Sara, just returned to Heartsdale for a visit, arrives at the jail in response to a mysterious phone call, she finds Tommy dead. Furious at the incompetence of Lena, whom she still holds responsible for her husband’s death (Beyond Reach, 2007), Sara phones the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who send Special Agent Will Trent to determine the question of Tommy’s innocence or guilt—and incidentally to referee the latest round of the long feud between the two women.
As usual in this white-hot series (Fractured, 2008, etc.), the ongoing psychological warfare and the physical violence that punctuates it are far more memorable than the unmasking of the real killer.Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-34197-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
