An adept and timely courtroom drama.
A judge confronts the rigors of an appellate court in this latest legal thriller in Kemanis’ series.
Dana Hargrove has come up in the world. The post-pandemic world finds Dana as an associate justice of New York City’s appellate division, meaning that she must now debate and compromise with other judges before handing down verdicts. Her current troublesome case is that of Josie Merced, a 17-year-old with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who’s been removed from her aunt’s care by Child Protective Services, who claim that the aunt has failed to provide Josie with lifesaving treatment. The case is tricky, however; it was Josie’s decision to refuse chemotherapy after seeing what it did to her late mother. Further complicating the matter is the fact that Dana’s son, Travis, is now an appellate attorney representing CPS, and his potentially career-making argument is at odds with Dana’s core beliefs. Meanwhile, Dana remains obsessed with a 2-year-old murder case in which both the victim and perpetrator are cops. Accusations of nepotism and coverup haunt the present investigation and trial, and her daughter, Natalie, a psychology grad student, is connected to one of the people involved, further muddying the waters. Can Dana maintain the objectivity that justice requires? Kemanis writes with typical elegance and control, spinning the intricacies of the law into moments of humor and drama, by turns. Here, for instance, she describes Dana’s reaction to being outvoted on the court: “She makes the effort to convince, even with those colleagues who stand firm in wet cement, daring her to watch it dry as she talks herself blue in the face.” The characters, new and old, bring with them a depth of history that lends the novel a gripping feeling of verisimilitude. With this book, Kemanis has brought Dana into roiling legal battles of the present day, dealing with issues of bodily autonomy and police violence that feel particularly urgent and timely. Dana hasn’t softened with age, and fans of the series are sure to enjoy this latest installment.
An adept and timely courtroom drama.Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7378479-0-8
Page Count: 317
Publisher: Opus Nine Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
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