A winning pairing propels this nail-biter to greater heights.
Instead of properly vacationing, a young police detective puts himself and his new bride in jeopardy in this taut thriller.
It took months, but Vancouver Police Constable Ben Malik finally takes his wife, Amy Robinson Malik, on a honeymoon to nearby Galiano Island. But a romantic escape isn’t in the stars. A private plane crashes into the sea, and they find the pilot dead. The victim is wealthy Vancouver Police Department benefactor Eugene Sokalsky, so Seppo Koskinen, Ben’s temporary boss, orders him back to work as a result. Also affected by the crash is the Sokalskys’ deadbeat son, Mark, a law school dropout who is working for gambling boss Luigi Alzaperi. In the course of the investigation, Ben meets Mark, learns too much about Mark’s roles in his father’s death and Alzaperi’s operation, and is subsequently abducted. When Ben fails to return home, Amy reports him missing. Angered by the slow pace of the police search for Ben, Amy begins her own investigation and soon uncovers the involvement of a dirty cop who pursues her. She goes off the grid while continuing to search for Ben. In Håkanson’s second book in the Amy Robinson series, salon owner Amy proves she can handle much more than a killer haircut—much to her and Ben’s surprise. Unable to trust Ben’s co-workers, Amy skillfully deploys a network of friends and acquaintances to help with the rescue effort. Despite being in captivity for much of the novel, Ben finds ways to ramp up the dramatic tension. Håkanson skillfully uses a layered cast (Mark is an entertaining villain—a spoiled poor-little rich boy who deserves to be fed to the sharks) in this quick-moving adventure. By thinking faster than their pursuers, Amy and Ben make for an appealing couple who are easy to cheer.
A winning pairing propels this nail-biter to greater heights.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 978-0992050313
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A taut tale that chillingly intertwines psychological and supernatural suspense.
A fledgling British psychologist tries to unravel a teen’s mysterious affliction in a Cornwall community gripped by the occult.
Six years after the death of her brother, Eddie, Mina Ellis is still haunted by memories that have been mercifully ameliorated by her attendance at a bereavement support group. There she meets empathetic journalist Sam Hunter, who hires her to do background research on a story he’s covering for the Western Herald. Though she’s professionally inexperienced, Mina has recently gotten her degree in psychology. Since she’s also feeling secretly uncertain about her upcoming marriage to the brusque Oscar, the assignment, which sends her to the bucolic parish of Banathel, provides a welcome getaway. The subject is Alice Webber, a bedridden teenager who believes she’s possessed by a witch. Parents Lisa and Paul are warmly supportive, but siblings Tamsin and Billy are frustrated and skeptical. The womblike aura of the household makes Mina homesick. Her arrival disturbs the parish, which has a long history of sorcery-related tragedy (think The Wicker Man), and a clutch of citizens visits the Webbers to demand that she leave. Shortly after Mina becomes convinced that Alice’s malady is psychological, the arrival of Alice’s nemesis, Vicky Matherson, triggers a horrific incident that shocks everyone. Pearce’s first-person narrative compellingly captures Mina’s mental fragility, the swirling anxiety simmering beneath even her most mundane human interactions and intensified by the heatwave that’s gripping Britain, marked by brown grass that’s a metaphor for her dark psyche. Can Mina trust her own analyses?
A taut tale that chillingly intertwines psychological and supernatural suspense.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781250334381
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
A genuine page-turner.
A professional con woman quickly realizes her latest job has become more personal and dangerous than planned.
Evie Porter (not her real name) is on a job in Louisiana and has successfully convinced her latest mark, Ryan Sumner, to fall for her in a whirlwind romance. All seems to be going well with Evie's investigation into Ryan's side business, a trucking company moving black market goods, until Evie meets a woman dating one of Ryan’s friends who introduces herself as Lucca Marino—Evie’s actual name. When imposter Lucca dies in a fiery car wreck and the police question Evie and Ryan as the last people to see her, an outstanding warrant pops for Evelyn Porter's arrest (though there should be no such history). It’s then that Evie understands that her current job is actually a test from her employer, Mr. Smith, who was unhappy after she busted her last assignment, and the stakes are much higher than she’d anticipated. To keep herself out of jail, Evie must pull in every favor she has accumulated during her career to outwit Mr. Smith, but she will have to first discern whether she can trust Ryan or if she has to cut and run if she wants any hope for a future. Interspersed with the current adventure are flashbacks that start 10 years earlier in which Evie recalls committing petty theft at the country club in a desperate bid for cash to pay for her mother’s cancer treatments during high school, being connected with Mr. Smith when she was caught, and the progression of jobs since then in which a host of lively side characters are introduced. YA writer Elston’s adult debut announces itself as a savvy thriller with intrigue and momentum from the first twist of Lucca’s arrival right up until the final showdowns. Evie is a smart and engaging protagonist, and her time on the run is anything but predictable.
A genuine page-turner.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593492918
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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