Dorsey’s voice is laconic and distinctive. And his management of single scenes is skillful. Structural weaknesses and...
Hilarious set pieces distinguish this otherwise sluggishly plotted contribution to Sunbelt Baroque, the genre epitomized by Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard.
Such stories are generally of the “only in Florida” sort and feature implausible plots quilted together with diverting wit but strained logic. Newcomer Dorsey’s tale opens in Tampa. Serge and his dim-witted partner, Coleman, are scam artists hustling through life on whatever schemes strike their fancy. They’re joined by Sharon, a blazing babe with an atrocious coke habit, who maneuvers Dr. George Veale into a videotaped act in the backroom of a strip club. Dentist Veale’s hands are insured for $5 million, and Serge and Coleman mutilate them with a chainsaw in exchange for their silence about the tape. Although Veale gets the money, he conceals it in David and Sean’s car, two honest, standup guys vacationing through Florida, who take off from the club totally unaware of their fraudulent cargo. The chase for the money is on, then, a pursuit that will include members of the Costa Gordon drug cartel, the New England Life and Casualty insurance company, a homophobic radio talk-show host, and other zany types you’d find only in Flor…well, enough said. All parties converge on Miami, where Dorsey has organized events around the 1997 World Series, won there by the Florida Marlins. The novel, though shuffles on long after the seventh game is over. Much of the inessential plotting puts Serge and Coleman through more of their unpredictable paces. While some of these scenes are quite funny – murder by Fix-A-Flat, encasement in shrinking jeans, and inverted alcohol poisoning – the reader may have to be reminded that there’s a story here waiting to finish up.
Dorsey’s voice is laconic and distinctive. And his management of single scenes is skillful. Structural weaknesses and improbable coincidences aside, then: an amusing beach read.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16782-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fast-paced, twisty-turny mystery perfect for a cozy weekend read.
When a mysterious hacker exposes sensitive emails at Aldrich University, everyone’s secrets are laid bare to public scrutiny. But no one saw surgeon Greg Strasser’s murder coming.
The data breach reveals Blue Hill, Pennsylvania, to be a veritable Peyton Place of disgrace, including extramarital affairs, testing scandals, and fraternity rape accusations. Hidden in Greg’s trash folder are emails to a “Lolita Bovary” that cast him as certainly a philanderer and quite possibly a pedophile. After the Aldrich Giving Gala, Greg’s wife, Kit, awakens from a drunken stupor to discover him stabbed in the kitchen. Could she have killed him out of rage? Or perhaps it was Kit’s ambitious co-worker Lynn, eager to push Kit off the corporate ladder by framing her for murder? Then again, where was Lynn’s husband that night? And who is Lolita? Kit’s daughter, Sienna, is certainly sad about her stepfather’s death, but her friend Raina’s grief seems suspiciously excessive. Meanwhile, Kit’s sister, Willa, is back in town. An investigative reporter with secrets in her own past, Willa is loath to stay a minute past the funeral reception, but how can she refuse to help Kit stay out of jail? With nods to Big Little Lies as well as her own Pretty Little Liars series, Shepard (The Elizas, 2018, etc.) brilliantly hides the identity of the true villain in the gaps between characters. An Agatha Christie for the 21st century, Shepard masterfully crafts a prestigious town rife with hidden temptation and sin. So Willa gets her chance to play Miss Marple, albeit a much younger, hipper version, and her sleuthing deftly exposes unexpected links between characters. From chapter to chapter, Shepard’s plotting breathlessly careens between characters, with each cliffhanger swiftly answered by another, ratcheting up the stakes until the killer is finally unmasked.
A fast-paced, twisty-turny mystery perfect for a cozy weekend read.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4290-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Fans will spot the last twist a mile away, but it doesn’t matter. For once Scottoline subordinates the criminal plot to the...
Legal and illegal shenanigans take a back seat to mother love and its vicissitudes in Scottoline’s barn-burning crossover novel about every adoptive mother’s worst nightmare.
Even though the escalating homicide count in Philadelphia includes more and more children and economic clouds portend layoffs at her newspaper, features reporter Ellen Gleeson has her own private store of sunshine: her three-year-old son Will, whom she fell in love with two years ago when a story about pediatric care brought her to his hospital bedside. Because Will had a heart defect and his mother couldn’t care for him, she was willing to sign him over to a single mother, a decision Ellen has blessed every day of her life—until the day she sees a circular asking, “HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CHILD?” with the photograph of a boy whose resemblance to Will is uncanny. Timothy Braverman, abducted from his wealthy Florida parents, Carol and Bill, in a carjacking that went horribly wrong, hasn’t been seen since. Despite her dread of confirming her fear that Will is Tim, Ellen can’t help neglecting her job (with predictably dire professional results) to gather more information about him, partly because of her reporter’s nose for a story, but mostly because she wants what’s best for her son, no matter the cost. The trail leads her to a garage full of adoption folders, some unwelcome revelations about Will’s birth mother and a tense game of hide-and-seek with the Bravermans as she realizes what a hornet’s nest her questions have stirred up, and how determined someone is to make sure this is one story she doesn’t break. Though the blood-and-thunder climax arrives a mite early, there’s one final twist in reserve.
Fans will spot the last twist a mile away, but it doesn’t matter. For once Scottoline subordinates the criminal plot to the human-interest story that rides sidesaddle in all her thrillers (Lady Killer, 2008, etc.), and the result is her best book yet.Pub Date: April 14, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-38072-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
© Copyright 2025 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.
