Despite some plot holes and cardboard characters, an action-packed thrill ride with plot twists around nearly every curve.
A maverick agent battles duplicity on all sides in a personal rescue mission.
In Istanbul, American Charlie Henican is seized by half a dozen men who call him an assassin. Twelve hours later, CIA deputy director Dorothy Triggs strategizes in the Bahamas with Max Oswald, her son and “right-hand man” about ways to convince Pierce Hunt to rescue Henican, his close friend. Hunt is vacationing there with his lover, Anna Garcia, who has shut down the Garcia crime syndicate, to which she’s the heiress. Though Hunt now works for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Triggs is confident that his history with Henican in Gaza will secure his involvement. Her attempt to convince Hunt goes badly, and later Triggs and Max are ambushed and nearly killed. A video confirms that Henican is alive, held by a group called the Maroon Berets, who accuse him of trying to kill the president of Turkey. Triggs declares the rescue of Henican too sensitive for Hunt’s renegade style and, in a meeting at Langley, convinces him to instead accompany veteran agent Harriet Jacobs on a mission to take out Venezuelan strongman Jorge Ramirez, who’ll be in Switzerland. Ramirez, meanwhile, is eager to align himself with the Maroon Berets and supplies them with intel on Venezuela’s new president, Col. Arteaga, whom the CIA has dubbed “Queen Bee.” Ramirez is surprised to learn that he’s to meet CIA operative Aram Diljen, a possible mole. Concealed at the meeting, Hunt and Jacobs receive an order at the last minute to kill Diljen instead. Who can the righteous Hunt trust?
Despite some plot holes and cardboard characters, an action-packed thrill ride with plot twists around nearly every curve.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2082-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
High art meets low life in a tale a lot more sympathetic to the latter.
Someone is stalking the streets of Lt. Eve Dallas’s New York, intent on bringing new life to sex workers by snuffing out their old ones.
In 2061, prostitutes are called licensed companions, and that’s Leesa Culver’s job description when she’s accosted by a plausible-looking artist who wants to hire her as a model for the night. Before the night is over, she’s been drugged, strangled, costumed, and posed as an uncanny replica of Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring. The shock of the crime is deepened by the murder the following night of licensed companion Bobby Ren, whose body is discovered at an art gallery entrance costumed and posed as Gainsborough’s Blue Boy. The killer clearly has an obsessive agenda, a rapid-fire timetable, and access to unlimited financial resources that have allowed him to commission expensive custom-made outfits for the victims. This last detail both marks his power and points to the way Dallas, her gazillionaire husband, Roarke, and her sidekick, Det. Delia Peabody, will track him down by methodically narrowing the field of consumers who’ve purchased the costly costumes. After identifying the guilty party two-thirds of the way through the story, they’ll still face an uphill battle convicting a killer with no conscience, no respect for the law, and a budget that would easily cover the means to jump bail, remove his ankle tracker, and hire a private jet to escape to a foreign land with no extradition treaty. Robb keeps it all consistently absorbing by sweating every procedural detail along with her heroine. Only Dallas’ climactic interrogation of her prisoner is a letdown, because it’s perfectly obvious how she’s going to wangle a confession out of him.
High art meets low life in a tale a lot more sympathetic to the latter.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781250370822
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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
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