A taut, often unnerving procedural with a memorable heroine and villain.
An FBI profiler’s past may link to a murderer’s in Regan’s (The Bones She Buried, 2019, etc.) thriller.
Agent Kassidy Bishop of the FBI’s Behavior Analysis Unit is on the hunt for a serial killer. At each crime scene, he leaves a message that reads “for you.” His M.O. is unusual in other ways, as well: The bodies show indications of torture that occurred after the victims were already dead. Kassidy suspects that they’re revenge killings of some kind, given the murderer’s recurring message. The novel alternates perspectives between first- and third-person, giving readers an early introduction to the killer, Wyatt Anderton, who’s obsessed with Kassidy and secretly spies on her. It’s revealed early on that, five years before, serial rapist Nico Sala tortured Kassidy, and that the resulting brain damage adversely affected her long-term memory. Wyatt, meanwhile, sometimes has blackouts and can’t remember all of his murders. As his control slips further away, he becomes an even greater threat—and Kassidy could be his next victim. As the killer’s identity and motive become clear, Regan concentrates her story less on the mystery than she does on the characters. The absorbing protagonist, who also lost her twin sister in an apparent suicide, is understandably reluctant to get close to anyone. Her skills are without question, however; as she and her partner, Agent TK Bennett, profile the killer, readers know that their insights are generally spot-on. Revelations about Wyatt’s past effectively humanize him, as both he and his younger sister endured abuse. But when he loses stretches of time, it can be terrifying; at one point, for instance, he suddenly finds himself in front of a victim with no memory of how he got there. Regan’s steadily paced narrative rarely slows down, and it delivers effective twists. Readers will likely be able to predict one of the more significant plot turns, but the author saves one for the end that they may not see coming.
A taut, often unnerving procedural with a memorable heroine and villain.Pub Date: June 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9968882-9-5
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Prodorutti Books
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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