A smartly restrained and persistently witty crime tale even at its grimmest.
For a British journalist, maintaining a career and financial stability can be murder—and may even call for it—in this thriller.
Though Martin’s two years older than Financial Review co-worker Tom de Lacy, it’s the latter who gets the coveted industrial correspondent’s job. The magazine’s editor effectively demotes Martin, who’s married with twin daughters, to subeditor, where he resents Tom and discreetly sabotages his copy. As Tom’s career soars, including a gig as a TV reporter, Martin takes a personal and professional nose dive, eventually becoming unemployed with his wife and children gone. The news gets worse: Martin’s terminally ill father, Simon, has changed his will, giving his house and half his estate to his younger brother, Walter, who’s just returned after inexplicably disappearing years ago. Desperate for money, Martin convinces Caroline, one of his two sisters, that enlisting a heavy to scare Uncle Walter out of the house is a good idea. Shortly thereafter, Martin hits a wave of good fortune, starting behind the scenes on a TV show and winding up in front of the camera. But hired heavy Jebb complicates matters by becoming smitten with Caroline. Martin’s potentially hot new story involving a pharmaceutical company, meanwhile, has ties to a recent murder—and he certainly doesn’t want authorities digging anywhere near him. Claver’s (Hider/Seeker, 2015) story is quietly chaotic, a series of events unfolding organically. Martin, for example, handles one problem at a time, such as his inability to get a hold of Jebb to verify that he’s only strong-arming Walter. Likewise, Martin’s solid under pressure and often funny. When Jebb hears Caroline’s voice over the phone, after Martin says she’s out of the country, the journalist tells him: “No, it’s my other sister, the ugly one.” Martin’s brisk, generally wry first-person narrative makes him an easy protagonist to root for, regardless of his questionable acts, while Tom, quite frankly, deserves the protagonist’s rancor. The somewhat ambiguous ending is striking, a lasting impression revealing what’s most important to Martin.
A smartly restrained and persistently witty crime tale even at its grimmest.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 378
Publisher: Matador
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© 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.
