A strong female lead stars in this riveting cross-genre tale.
In this debut novel, a Southern woman who spent her adolescence on her own tracks a killer.
Tina Brooks, raised by her great-aunt, is 6 when she finally meets her birth mother, Antoinette. “Twanie” had her daughter in high school—after a rich jock classmate raped her. Twanie becomes Tina’s sole caretaker and is a strict but protective mom. Shockingly, she vanishes with her current boyfriend when her daughter is barely a teen. Tina, who’s Black, is scared and alone until a few kindhearted adults come to her aid. Though still young, she perseveres both as a student and a hard worker. Tina is usually withdrawn but eventually befriends Denise, a co-worker. When her new friend unexpectedly dies, Tina suspects she was murdered. Surely her co-worker’s abusive boyfriend is the killer. But Tina has never met him, and though she knows his first name and that he’s a cop, the Richmond Police Department has no record of him. So she hunts a killer, with Denise’s noticeably handsome brother, Kennard, lending a hand and, perhaps, a romantic interest. Seay and her older sister, Coles, who died before publication, have written a superb coming-of-age tale fused with a solid murder mystery. Character development is top-notch; the narrative initially centers on Twanie, making her sudden absence truly poignant. Both she and winsome Tina endure tough childhoods and strive to be independent. The men aren’t quite as engaging, so neither Kennard nor another potential suitor seem worthy of Tina. Despite instances of violence and relentless hardships, this story is relatively buoyant. Similarly, the authors tend to describe people in diverting fashion, like Tina’s “intimidating” boss-to-be, a “Xena Warrior Princess with all white hair.”
A strong female lead stars in this riveting cross-genre tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9985576-5-6
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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