A smashing sequel. More please.
In the follow-up to Save Me From Dangerous Men (2019), bookseller/private detective Nikki Griffin lands in hot water when she takes on a wealthy new client.
Business is booming at Brimstone Magpie, Nikki’s Berkeley bookstore, and she’s found contentment with her English professor boyfriend, Ethan, who wants her to move in with him. Contentment doesn’t quite suit Nikki, however, so she’s raring to go when she scores new client Martin Johannessen, who happens to come from one of San Francisco’s wealthiest families. Martin says his octogenarian mother has been blackmailed by the charming and much younger Geoffrey Coombs, a suspected con man. Coombs' trail leads Nikki to a ritzy Monterey hotel, and despite herself, Nikki finds herself attracted to the handsome, smooth-mannered psychologist, who seems to see her for who she really is: a woman who loves being on the edge of danger. Nikki’s scenes with Coombs, chock full of snappy dialogue, are right out of a black-and-white noir, but, unfortunately, their time together culminates in his abduction by some very bad men who threaten to fit him with concrete shoes. Coombs may have been up to something nefarious, but allowing him to be killed by these guys is not in Nikki’s playbook, and after Martin terminates her contract, she’s hired by his mother, Marie, who is most definitely not helpless or a victim. Marie wants Nikki to save Coombs, and it will undoubtedly be dangerous, but Nikki has friends in high and low places who are always eager to help. She even gets a boost from Mason, an inquisitive 12-year-old she meets by chance. Nikki has a moral imperative to mete out justice that is fueled by childhood tragedy. Those who dare to underestimate her are in for a nasty surprise, and she’s not afraid to use a little violence to help those who can’t help themselves. The nearly fearless and deeply empathetic Nikki is ridiculously easy to root for, and the pace is fast and furious all the way to a deeply satisfying finale.
A smashing sequel. More please.Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-17027-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 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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