Sowyak’s grasp of human hurt and healing deepens this terrifying novel’s lasting impact.
An emergency room nurse races against the clock to solve a kidnapping, a murder, and a medical mystery in Sowyak’s thriller.
Maggie Bennett runs the ER at Saint Vincent’s Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. On Christmas night, the hospital is shaken by a daring and violent robbery of narcotics that leaves one of Maggie’s coworkers dead, another with a life-threatening injury, and still another senselessly kidnapped. Having already survived an attack by a serial killer, Maggie knows that you can’t always follow the rules if you want to survive. She and her coworker Benny Maxwell break what they can’t bend as they hunt down the kidnapper of Willow, Benny’s wife, with the help of retired homicide detective Lamar Floyd and detective Mark Hanes, who seems to vacillate between admiring Maggie and accusing her of murder. Drawing on her experience as a registered nurse and as a medical advisor for feature films and TV series (including Law and Order), the author writes convincingly about the human condition as seen through the eyes of medical workers on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic. Procedurals have the advantage of convincing the reader of their verisimilitude while also lulling them with a false sense of order—a sense that, in time, every stone will be turned, every mystery will be solved, and everything will be understood. When the reader finally learns who’s behind the kidnapping of Willow, it becomes evident how deeply Sowyak understands characters caught up in violent relationships, and the resulting terror is utterly believable and chilling (“Blood flowed freely as she desperately looked around for a way out. There wasn’t one”). You don’t want to bet against Maggie, but the harrowing nature of the psychological and physical violence people visit upon each other in this outing makes one doubt even the comforting certainties of the procedural.
Sowyak’s grasp of human hurt and healing deepens this terrifying novel’s lasting impact.Pub Date: June 16, 2023
ISBN: 9798218228989
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 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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