A conflicted investigator successfully follows his conscience in this well-constructed mystery.
In Hadden’s second series thriller, a private investigator risks his new family to help a desperate woman find answers.
P.I. Ike Rossi’s new client is Amelia Garcia, a retired U.S. Air Force drone pilot who now runs a remotely operated deep-water vehicle for Falzone Energy, owned by Ike’s friend Shannon Falzone. Amelia’s hobby is collecting artifacts from the ocean floor, but her latest find, a strongbox emblazoned with a Nazi eagle, quickly puts her in danger. She mentioned it to her Uncle Billy, and soon afterward, he and his wife, Bessie, were found dead. Billy’s contact at the U.S. Department of Justice was killed in a car wreck around the same time. The deaths get the FBI interested in the case, and Ike gets involved as well after a panicked Shannon asks for his help. As it turns out, one of the FBI agents is Mia Russo—Ike’s old flame, whom he considers to be the one who got away. Shannon convinces Ike to fly with her to Kiawah Island, South Carolina, to meet with Amelia. Ike is still seeking answers to his own parents’ murders 23 years ago, but he agrees to help. It soon becomes clear that someone powerful is after whatever’s in the strongbox. With the help of retiree Frank McNally, an ex–World War II codebreaker with his own secrets, Ike and Amelia must solve the mystery before it’s too late. Hadden begins with a novel concept: a dogged and skilled detective who’s unable to solve the biggest mystery of his life. Although Ike makes significant headway on that front this time out, he still ends up with more questions than answers. Most of the colorful characters from Hadden’s first series installment, The Victim of the System (2018), return, but he also develops engaging new characters, including Amelia and tech whiz Dominic Massaro. Ike and Amelia often clash over the direction of their investigation, wasting precious time; their delays also allow those chasing them to close in, making for an effectively suspenseful narrative that proceeds at a brisk pace.
A conflicted investigator successfully follows his conscience in this well-constructed mystery.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Mahogany Row Press
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.
Three siblings on very different paths learn that their family home may be haunted by secrets.
Eldest daughter Beth is alone with her fading mother as she takes her final breath and says something about Beth’s long-departed brother and sister, who may not have disappeared forever. Beth is still reeling from the loss of her mother when her estranged siblings show up. Michael, the youngest, hasn’t been home since their father’s disappearance seven years ago. In the meantime, he’s outgrown his siblings, trading his share of the family troubles for a high-paying job in San Jose. Nicole, the middle child, has been overpowered by addiction and prioritized tuning out reality over any sense of responsibility, much to Beth’s disgust. Though their mother’s death marks an ending for the family, it’s also a beginning, as the three siblings realize when they find a disturbing videotape among their parents’ belongings. The video, from 1999, sheds suspicion on their father’s disappearance, linking it to a long-unsolved neighborhood mystery. Was it just a series of unfortunate circumstances that broke the family apart, or does something more sinister underlie the sadness they’ve all found in life? In chapters that rotate among the family’s first-person narratives, the siblings take turns digging up stories and secrets in their search for solace.
Answers are hard to come by in this twisting tale designed to trick and delight.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9798212182843
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A weird, wild ride.
Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense.
Sager’s debut, Final Girls (2017), was fun and beautifully crafted. His most recent novels—Home Before Dark (2020) and Survive the Night (2021) —have been fun and a bit rickety. His new novel fits that mold. Narrator Casey Fletcher grew up watching her mother dazzle audiences, and then she became an actor herself. While she never achieves the “America’s sweetheart” status her mother enjoyed, Casey makes a career out of bit parts in movies and on TV and meatier parts onstage. Then the death of her husband sends her into an alcoholic spiral that ends with her getting fired from a Broadway play. When paparazzi document her substance abuse, her mother exiles her to the family retreat in Vermont. Casey has a dry, droll perspective that persists until circumstances overwhelm her, and if you’re getting a Carrie Fisher vibe from Casey Fletcher, that is almost certainly not an accident. Once in Vermont, she passes the time drinking bourbon and watching the former supermodel and the tech mogul who live across the lake through a pair of binoculars. Casey befriends Katherine Royce after rescuing her when she almost drowns and soon concludes that all is not well in Katherine and Tom’s marriage. Then Katherine disappears….It would be unfair to say too much about what happens next, but creepy coincidences start piling up, and eventually, Casey has to face the possibility that maybe some of the eerie legends about Lake Greene might have some truth to them. Sager certainly delivers a lot of twists, and he ventures into what is, for him, new territory. Are there some things that don’t quite add up at the end? Maybe, but asking that question does nothing but spoil a highly entertaining read.
A weird, wild ride.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18319-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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