by William P. Eshleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 19, 2021
An often engaging action novel, bolstered by its exotic setting and realistic protagonist.
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A grad student investigates the tragic death of a diving partner and stumbles on a crime ring in Eshleman’s debut thriller.
Readers first meet Peter Case as he’s doing work for his doctorate in a science-related field, mid-dive near a Jamaican marine lab, where his attentive and analytic manner is immediately evident. Early chapters show the energetic, likable protagonist bantering with his diving buddy Wayne Emery, trading friendly barbs and insults in an appealing show of camaraderie. A mysterious explosion occurs underwater and Emery dies from apparent radiation poisoning; Case tries to get to the bottom of what happened and finds himself ushered into a broader world of dangerous intrigue and espionage. Eshleman proves to be an adept writer of action scenes, but what makes his work stand out are his hyperrealistic treatments of diving and marine life. His keen eye for detailed scene-setting results in a description of a seedy, smoke-filled bar (“An old jukebox, speakers designed for more melodic tunes, vibrated in the corner of the room with every bass note”) that’s nearly as vivid as more sophisticated scenes set underwater. The frenetic pace of the story also works in the story’s favor as Case becomes embroiled in what turns out to be an international conspiracy with CIA involvement. Some of the characters, including the novel’s villain, fall into fairly standard thriller tropes, but Case himself is an impressively crafted protagonist who stands strongly at the center of the action. At first, he seems like an unlikely hero, but his dogged observational skills and skeptical nature make him a valuable investigator, and the book closes with a way forward for him to headline future novels in Eshleman’s fictional universe.
An often engaging action novel, bolstered by its exotic setting and realistic protagonist.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-03-913114-9
Page Count: 264
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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More In The Series
by Lisa Scottoline ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2024
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.
The ne’er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren’t exactly the upstanding citizens they appear.
The first 35 years in the life of Thomas “TJ” Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who’s been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie’s then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier—until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John’s way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can’t trust anything his brother has said since he’s fallen off the wagon. TJ, who’s maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you’ll have a much better time than TJ.
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780525539704
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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by Joanna Wallace ‧ RELEASE DATE: today
Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.
Dexter meets Killing Eve in Wallace’s dark comic thriller debut.
While accepting condolences following her father’s funeral, 30-something narrator Claire receives an email saying that one of her paintings is a finalist for a prize. But her joy is short-circuited the next morning when she learns in a second apologetic note that the initial email had been sent to the wrong Claire. The sender, Lucas Kane, is “terribly, terribly sorry” for his mistake. Claire, torn between her anger and suicidal thoughts, has doubts about his sincerity and stalks him to a London pub, where his fate is sealed: “I stare at Lucas Kane in real life, and within moments I know. He doesn’t look sorry.” She dispatches and buries Lucas in her back garden, but this crime does not go unnoticed. Proud of her meticulous standards as a serial killer, Claire wonders if her grief for her father is making her reckless as she seeks to identify the blackmailer among the members of her weekly bereavement support group. The female serial killer as antihero is a growing subgenre (see Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer, 2018), and Wallace’s sociopathic protagonist is a mordantly amusing addition; the tool she uses to interact with ordinary people while hiding her homicidal nature is especially sardonic: “Whenever I’m unsure of how I’m expected to respond, I use a cliché. Even if I’m not sure what it means, even if I use it incorrectly, no one ever seems to mind.” The well-written storyline tackles some tough subjects—dementia, elder abuse, and parental cruelty—but the convoluted plot starts to drag at the halfway point. Given the lack of empathy in Claire’s narration, most of the characters come across as not very likable, and the reader tires of her sneering contempt.
Squeamish readers will find this isn’t their cup of tea.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9780143136170
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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