A fun and politically smart but unpolished first novel.
A CIA agent discovers an otherworldly conspiracy to overthrow humanity in WLVE's SF adventure debut.
Getty Pokem is a “mid-level technology manager” with the Central Intelligence Agency. One beautiful spring day, he’s walking in Washington, D.C., with his daughters: Irene, age 4; Christine, age 6; and Fatima, age 8. As they pass the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a National Weapons Association rally becomes unruly. Gunfire breaks out, and the NWA president is shot. A stray bullet kills Irene. Getty is Black: Was he targeted because of it? He tackles the gunman, and to his shock the man looks exactly like Abraham Lincoln. The shooter then disintegrates. Three months later, Getty is depressed and his ex-wife, Amanda, keeps the children from him. At work his boss, Mr. Brennan, asks him to attend a virtual meeting on his behalf so that his superior, Getty presumes, can tryst with his lover. With access to his boss’s computer, Getty can’t resist peeking at prohibited files relating to “Disposable Assassins,” one dealing with a Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, the lead scientist on a project involving regenerated tissue and artificial intelligence. No sooner does he download the file to a thumb drive than he receives a warning on the computer to meet a mysterious contact in one of Washington’s upscale neighborhoods “if you want to live.” Getty travels to and enters a well-maintained colonial house where he meets fellow CIA agent Selena. The enchanting woman explains that she’s been watching Getty since his daughter was killed as she’s been monitoring violent public attacks. As she tells him he’s “in grave danger,” a pair of gunmen lay siege to the house. The gunman capture enemies within it, dead ringers for Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin, who disintegrate after being tortured. Getty’s humdrum life as a bachelor is over as the creations of Dr. Jennifer Jenkins enter the political landscape—and his life.
WLVE turns a savage, satirical eye on modern America this story, which opens with the end of a pandemic quarantine. When Getty explains why he fled a crime scene: “I’m a black man at the scene of a crime where a white cop just got shot, I figured fleeing was my best option.” As events proceed, WLVE offers hot takes on everything from woke work environments to Covid-19’s supposed engineering by humans, as espoused by Getty’s conspiracy-minded friend, Grant. Most of the public figures are drawn bitingly, including a certain “orange haired” former president, whose “Make America Safe and Strong Again” spells out “MASSA.” However, the narrative takes some wince-inducing turns, as when “the only African American man” to become president is assassinated. In an ode to the James Bond novels and films, Selena proves to be Getty’s seductive and capable dream woman. And as in the Bond series, WLVE's work becomes unabashedly bizarre. A secretive figure named Nostradamus drops clues, aliens conspire against humanity, and sex droids enter the market. The whole is stitched together quite entertainingly, particularly in its depictions of some celebrities, though the writing throughout the book needed a firmer editorial hand. On the first page, readers learn the ages of Getty’s daughters twice. The sequence of tenses can be distracting, and some sentences contain gibberish, such as, “Getty’s face was taunt, fand he felt perplexed.” Still, Getty emerges with superheroic standing, ready to tackle further challenges.
A fun and politically smart but unpolished first novel.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66984-552-2
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Xlibris US
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2022
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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