A finely wrought nightmare that will strike a chord for every parent who’s been troubled by dreams of losing a child.
Ten years after her son vanishes on his 10th birthday, a family physician encounters him anew—and he hasn’t aged a day.
No one but Dr. Maddi Libéri believes that Tom Fontaine is really Esteban Libéri, who of course would be 20 by now. Everyone else thinks the body that was recovered from the sea a month after Esteban disappeared from the Normandy beach where his single mother had taken him to swim was his. But the harder Maddi, who’s always resisted the idea that her son is dead, looks at Tom, the more convincing she finds the evidence that he’s Esteban’s reincarnation. The first time she spots him, he’s wearing an indigo swimsuit identical to the one Esteban was wearing on his birthday. Like Esteban, he speaks Basque, even though no one has ever taught it to him. And he has a birthmark identical to Esteban’s in exactly the same place. So after Maddi identifies his pregnant mother as Amandine Fontaine, she follows her to the Auvergne village of Murol and sets up shop as the town’s only doctor, a position that guarantees she’ll be seeing more of both mother and son. The gradual resolution of the mystery, which Bussi teases with strong hints of the supernatural, turns out to be entirely logical—“There is one coincidence in this story. Just one!” the architect of Maddi’s troubles announces during the big reveal—though more than a little far-fetched. But then, what did you expect from such an outrageous premise?
A finely wrought nightmare that will strike a chord for every parent who’s been troubled by dreams of losing a child.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781662509049
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 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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