The helter-skelter ending is a small price to pay for such an effective series of small-town jolts.
A pair of couldn’t-be-less-related murders are at the heart of Jesse Stone’s latest case.
All too soon after the police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, relaxes by taking in a baseball game the Paradise Pirates win over neighboring Marshport High, the town is devastated by the discovery of shortstop Jack Carlisle’s body on the rocks below Bluff Lookout. Since Jack was not only a bona fide baseball star, but the nephew of Detective Luther "Suitcase" Simpson, the case is guaranteed top priority—until the stonewalling of Jack’s teammates and his girlfriend, Ainsley Walsh, who may have been two-timing him with first baseman Scott Ford, is upstaged by a second fatality, the shooting of retired Paradise police chief Charlie Farrell in his home. Rejecting the possibility that two such sudden deaths could be coincidental, Jesse beats the bushes looking for a connection. Along the way he finds angry parents, links to a cryptocurrency ring, mobbed-up heavies, a third corpse, and a growing series of hints that the center of this criminal maelstrom, if indeed it has a center, is newcomer Hillary More’s candy store, More Chocolate, which turns out to have brought together a remarkably far-flung crowd of sweet-toothed suspects. Manfully resisting the questions of local reporter Nellie Shofner, to whom he says “We're friends with benefits. Just not those kind of benefits,” Jesse miraculously ties all these felonies together and manages to elude the latest crime boss he’s run afoul of.
The helter-skelter ending is a small price to pay for such an effective series of small-town jolts.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-54027-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A touching story of love and grief ends in an epic battle of good versus evil.
Roberts’ latest may move you to tears, or joy, or dread, or all three.
Every summer, John and Cora Fox visit Cora’s mother, Lucy Lannigan, in Redbud Hollow, Kentucky, leaving their children, 12-year-old Thea and 10-year-old Rem, for a two-week taste of heaven. The children love Grammie Lucy far more than John’s snooty family, which looks down on Cora. Lucy, a healer with deep Appalachian roots, loves animals, cooks the best meals, plays musical instruments, and makes soap and candles for her thriving business. Thea—who’s inherited the psychic abilities passed down through the women of Lucy’s family—has vivid magical dreams, one of which becomes a living nightmare when a psychopath robs and murders John and Cora as Thea watches helplessly. Thea’s description of the killer and her ability to see him in real time help the skeptical police catch Ray Riggs, who goes to prison for life. Although Thea and Rem go on to have a wonderful childhood with Grammie, Thea constantly wages a mental battle with Riggs, who tries to use his own psychic abilities to get into her mind. Over the years, Thea uses her imagination to become a game designer while the more business-minded Rem helps manage her career. Thea eventually builds a house near Lucy, where a newly arrived neighbor is her teen crush, singer-songwriter Tyler Brennan. Tyler has his own issues and is protective of his young son but slowly builds a loving relationship with Thea, whose silence about her abilities leads to a devastating misunderstanding. At first Thea tries to keep Riggs locked out of her mind. As her powers grow, she torments him. Finally, she realizes that she must win this battle and destroy him if she’s ever to have peace.
A touching story of love and grief ends in an epic battle of good versus evil.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781250289698
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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