An exhilarating thriller; Clive Cussler fans will find that Peter Case floats their boat.
A diving pro and part owner of a Canadian undersea salvage company tangles with international criminals and multiple intelligence agencies.
In Eshleman’s second installment of a thriller series, Peter Case returns home to Canada after completing his doctorate in zoology in Jamaica, where he also got involved in an international conspiracy with a CIA connection. Now, he and his buddy Hal operate their maritime salvage business out of a former fish factory that is half a kilometer up the inlet from the vacation cabin of redheaded widow Kathleen and her precocious young daughter, Amy. Case, a swaggering, 6-foot-3-inch (in cowboy boots), sculpted-thighed, deep-chested, long-haired heavy smoker, is smitten with Kathleen, but imminent danger demands more of his attention. On a mission to kill him are crime ring members he encountered in Jamaica, a pair of whom Case outmaneuvers on a twisty mountain road. Humor adds flavor to the story; for example, when examining a sunken wreck, Case encounters a shark that turns out to be a dead specimen Hal released in the ship to freak out his friend (mission accomplished). Car chases, kidnappings, fights, killings, and proposed torture, such as a “foot tenderized with a ball-peen hammer,” saturate the book. Case is so cocky and so often in danger that someone says to him, “Everyone you meet seems to want you dead. I believe I’m beginning to understand why.” Case’s mind whirls as he realizes some of the players—“CIA, CSIS, MI6, KGB”—in the crime drama surrounding him. The backstory of the Jamaica escapade is revealed organically, as is Case’s past as a bullied, chubby kid who transformed his body and built his confidence by engaging in martial arts and weight training. Underwater sequences are handled particularly well, and scenes of the stunning Rockies are travelogue perfect. But Kathleen’s inability to keep tabs on her daughter is bothersome, and the spunky kid often comes off as more annoying than charming (remember what Lou Grant said about spunk).
An exhilarating thriller; Clive Cussler fans will find that Peter Case floats their boat.Pub Date: May 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-03-914810-9
Page Count: 312
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.
The loss of her police officer father and the discovery of an abandoned car in a local lake raise chilling questions regarding a young woman’s family history.
When Hazel Sharp returns to her hometown of Mirror Lake, North Carolina, for her father’s memorial, she and the other townspeople are confronted by a challenging double whammy: As they’re grieving the loss of beloved longtime police officer Detective Perry Holt, a disturbing sight appears in the lake, whose waterline is receding because of an ongoing drought—an old, unidentifiable car, which has likely been lurking there for years. Hazel temporarily leaves her Charlotte-based building-renovation business in the capable hands of her partners and reconnects with her brothers, Caden and Gage; her Uncle Roy; her old fling and neighbor, Nico; and her schoolfriend, Jamie, now a mother and married to Caden. Tiny, relentless suspicions rise to the metaphorical surface along with that waterlogged vehicle: There have been a slew of minor break-ins; two people go missing; and then, a second abandoned car is discovered. The novel digs deeper into Hazel’s family history—her father was a widow when he married Hazel’s mother, who later left the family, absconding with money and jewels—and Miranda, a consummate professional when it comes to exposing the small community tensions that naturally arise when people live in close proximity for generations, exposes revelation after twisty revelation: “Everything mattered disproportionately in a small town. Your success, but also your failure. Everyone knows might as well have been our town motto.”
Small-town claustrophobia and intimacies alike propel this twist-filled psychological thriller.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781668010440
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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