A smashing finale to an engaging, boldly written series about family ties.
In this final volume of a trilogy, a New Jersey mixed martial artist preps for his final fight while his son aims for distinction with his second rap album.
Now in his mid-40s, Tonio Franco will be stepping into the MMA cage one last time. His opponent is the current bantam and featherweight champ, Lenny “Linc” Carrera—his nickname is short for “Lightning in a Cage.” Franco travels cross-country with his friend/trainer Joey, as the match is set in Los Angeles. Along the way is a stop in Las Vegas, near the residence of Randall Starks, the pedophile who years ago assaulted Franco’s then-teenage son, TJ. Now that Randall is out of jail after serving little—perhaps not enough—time, Franco plans to confront him with a Glock. TJ, meanwhile, is a 26-year-old rapper with a moderately successful debut album. The studio isn’t giving him much artistic freedom for his follow-up and pressures him into singing producer-approved lyrics. These include racial slurs for shock value. But TJ, whose orphan father’s origins are unknown, is “more Bieber than black.” As Franco struggles with both the 155-pound weight requirement and his moral predicament concerning Randall, TJ fights to record songs steeped in art rather than commercialism. Sheridan once again skillfully showcases his “lyrical prose,” in which narrative descriptions occasionally boast vibrant rhymes and/or wordplay. Franco, for example, had “an angry young man past where he was more goodfella than good fella.” But the poetic story also involves thoroughly absorbing characters. Enhancing the protagonists’ main objectives are smaller dilemmas: TJ and Linc are pals; Franco finds himself attracted to Joey’s assistant coach, Khloei, while the competitor’s wife, Julie, is back home in New Jersey. Notwithstanding the serious drama, this bracing tale has a superb, consistent sense of humor, particularly in the footnotes that are more wisecracking than informational.
A smashing finale to an engaging, boldly written series about family ties. (author bio)Pub Date: June 18, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Greed, love, and extrasensory abilities combine in two middling mysteries.
Coulter’s treasured FBI agents take on two cases marked by danger and personal involvement.
Dillon Savitch and his wife, Lacey Sherlock, have special abilities that have served them well in law enforcement (Paradox, 2018, etc.). But that doesn't prevent Sherlock’s car from hitting a running man after having been struck by a speeding SUV that runs a red light. The runner, though clearly injured, continues on his way and disappears. Not so the SUV driver, a security engineer for the Bexholt Group, which has ties to government agencies. Sherlock’s own concussion causes memory loss so severe that she doesn’t recognize Savitch or remember their son, Sean. The whole incident seems more suspicious when a blood test from the splatter of the man Sherlock hit reveals that he’s Justice Cummings, an analyst for the CIA. The agency’s refusal to cooperate makes Savitch certain that Bexholt is involved in a deep-laid plot. Meanwhile, Special Agent Griffin Hammersmith is visiting friends who run a cafe in the touristy Virginia town of Gaffers Ridge. Hammersmith, who has psychic abilities, is taken aback when he hears in his mind a woman’s cry for help. Reporter Carson DeSilva, who came to the area to interview a Nobel Prize winner, also has psychic abilities, and she overhears the thoughts of Rafer Bodine, a young man who has apparently kidnapped and possibly murdered three teenage girls. Unluckily, she blurts out her thoughts, and she’s snatched and tied up in a cellar by Bodine. Bodine may be a killer, but he’s also the nephew of the sheriff and the son of the local bigwig. So the sheriff arrests Hammersmith and refuses to accept his FBI credentials. Bodine's mother has psychic powers strong enough to kill, but she meets her match in Hammersmith, DeSilva, Savitch, and Sherlock.
Greed, love, and extrasensory abilities combine in two middling mysteries.Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9365-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Roberts revisits a favorite theme: The power of community can defeat a great evil.
After escaping from a serial killer, a woman tries to reclaim her life.
After a childhood as an Army brat, Morgan Albright is determined to put down roots. She bought a small house in the perfect neighborhood outside of Baltimore, living with a friend and working two jobs to make ends meet. Morgan’s life is happy and fulfilling, and she is making progress on her financial and career goals. Her perfect world is shattered when someone breaks into her home and murders her roommate. At first, the police assume it was a random act of violence, but after discovering the killer stole Morgan’s identity and her entire savings, they realize the crime fits the profile of a serial killer named Gavin Rozwell. The police inform Morgan that her roommate was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time; she was the real intended target. Morgan’s grief, coupled with the financial devastation from the identity theft, leaves her no choice but to return home to Vermont to live with her mother and grandmother. Morgan reconnects with her family and rebuilds her life, including landing the perfect job and falling in love. The police and FBI pursue Gavin, who continues to stalk and kill women, each time leaving a reminder at the crime scene that shows he’s fixated on Morgan as the one who got away. Roberts shows Gavin’s slow descent into obsession and madness as the inverse of Morgan’s healing journey back to herself and her community. The novel highlights Morgan’s preparations for the inevitable final countdown with Gavin, but the lack of immediacy and urgency of the threat makes for a subdued, restrained thriller.
Roberts revisits a favorite theme: The power of community can defeat a great evil.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284112
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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