by Rachel Hawkins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 4, 2022
Beautiful, rudderless 20-somethings find trouble in paradise.
San Diego waitress Lux McAllister has led a joyless existence since quitting college to care for her dying mother, so when hunky customer Nico Johannsen invites her to sail the seas with him aboard his new boat, the Susannah, she accepts. They arrange to rendezvous in Hawaii after Lux ties up some loose ends, but when she gets off the plane, she learns the vessel sustained damage en route. Nico can’t afford the repairs, so rather than living aboard the Susannah as planned, the pair starts crashing in a cramped house with four other people while Lux cleans hotel rooms to make ends meet. When adventure-seekers Brittany and Amma, both 22, offer Nico $50,000 to rent a boat and take them to Meroe Island—an uninhabited Pacific atoll with a gruesome history—Lux extends a counteroffer: pay to fix the Susannah, and the four of them will spend two carefree weeks exploring the place together. Though the voyage proves harrowing, Meroe is stunning, and they bond instantly with wealthy, hedonistic fellow travelers Jake and Eliza, whose catamaran is in the harbor when they arrive. As the days stretch on, however, tension mounts, and the group’s idyllic existence takes a dark turn. Evocative prose and a palpably foreboding atmosphere complement Lux’s present-tense narration, which Hawkins studs with flashbacks exposing the secrets, lies, and betrayals that brought each character to this point. Danger and interpersonal drama abound, with a slew of outrageous twists adding to the fun.
A soapy, claustrophobic page-turner.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-2502-7425-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
Categories: SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | GENERAL FICTION
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by David Baldacci ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 19, 2022
An old-fashioned gumshoe yarn about Hollywood dreams and dead bodies.
Private investigator Aloysius Archer celebrates New Year’s Eve 1952 in LA with his gorgeous lady friend and aspiring actress Liberty Callahan. Screenwriter Eleanor Lamb shows up and offers to hire him because “someone might be trying to kill me.” “I’m fifty a day plus expenses,” he replies, but money’s no obstacle. Later, he sneaks into Lamb’s house and stumbles upon a body, then gets knocked out by an unseen assailant. Archer takes plenty of physical abuse in the story, but at least he doesn’t get a bullet between the eyes like the guy he trips over. A 30-year-old World War II combat veteran, Archer is a righteous and brave hero. Luck and grit keep him alive in both Vegas and the City of Angels, which is rife with gangsters and crooked cops. Not rich at all, his one luxury is the blood-red 1939 Delahaye he likes to drive with the top down. He’d bought it with his gambling winnings in Reno, and only a bullet hole in the windscreen post mars its perfection. Liberty loves Archer, but will she put up with the daily danger of losing him? Why doesn’t he get a safe job, maybe playing one of LA’s finest on the hit TV show Dragnet? Instead, he’s a tough and principled idealist who wants to make the world a better place. Either that or he’s simply a “pavement-pounding PI on a slow dance to maybe nowhere.” And if some goon doesn’t do him in sooner, his Lucky Strikes will probably do him in later. Baldacci paints a vivid picture of the not-so-distant era when everybody smoked, Joe McCarthy hunted commies, and Marilyn Monroe stirred men’s loins. The 1950s weren’t the fabled good old days, but they’re fodder for gritty crime stories of high ideals and lowlifes, of longing and disappointment, and all the trouble a PI can handle.
Well-done crime fiction. Baldacci nails the noir.Pub Date: April 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5387-1977-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Categories: SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | HISTORICAL THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE
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by Lisa Jewell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2018
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Categories: GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | SUSPENSE
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