The Resort by Sara Ochs – Review

Posted on March 14, 2024 by John

TheResort (Sara Ochs) - front coverThe Resort: A Novel
by Sara Ochs

Sourcebooks Landmark
Mystery & Thrillers

General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 06 Feb 2024

DESCRIPTION/SYNOPSIS:

For readers of Rachel Hawkins and We Were Never Here comes a searing vacation thriller set on a remote island in Thailand following two mysterious women, a charismatic group of expats, and the one murder poised to bring their paradise crashing down.

Welcome to paradise. We hope you survive your stay…

There are three rules to survive a dive at the famous Koh Sang Resort

1 – Breathe normally if something goes wrong. Scuba diving instructor Cass leads her students out for their first dive off the beautiful coast of Koh Sang, Thailand’s world-famous party island. It’s supposed to be a life-changing experience, but things quickly spiral out of control…

2 – Always dive with someone you trust. By the time she’s back on the shore, Lucy, one of her students, is dead, another critically injured, and she knows the new and idyllic life she has built herself is about to be smashed to pieces on the rocks.

3 – Don’t panic if your oxygen is running out. Because someone has discovered Cass’s dark secret, and on an island as remote as this, there aren’t many places to hide. There is a killer waiting, and whoever it is will stop at nothing until Cass’s life is ruined and justice is finally served.

REVIEW:

Some secrets are deadly. The Resort comes with a cast of characters who are self-described castoffs and loners seeking a second chance or at least a fresh start on the party island of Koh Sang in Thailand. What they have in common has brought them together, but the secrets some of them harbor could tear their new lives apart. The narrative alternates between two POV characters, Cass, a scuba diving instructor on the island, and the latest member of the group, Brooke, an Instagram influencer who’s sponsors subsidize her itinerant lifestyle. Brooke is still in the process of insinuating herself into the group of expats calling themselves the Permanents when Lucy, a tourist visiting the island, is found dead, likely murdered. The local police force, however, seems unwilling to entertain the possibility of foul play, possibly due to a payoff by the resort’s owner, despite the recent and suspicious death of another young woman that was, nevertheless, deemed a suicide. Before long, Brooke and Cass — the one Permanent most accepting of the social media savvy newcomer — begin their own amateur investigation of Lucy’s death.

In her POV, Cass reveals some of her own secret, involving the death of her sister and father, though the details are scarce; while Brooke’s POV reveals she isn’t as successful in her social media influencer role as she would like people to believe, and that she’s struggling to make ends meet. Even less is revealed about the secrets of the rest of the Permanents. And perhaps too much of  3/4 of the book revolves around investigative speculation and general introspection by these two semi-reliable narrators for the story to slip into the flow of a page-turning thriller. Much like the scuba divers at the resort, the plot spends a bit too much time treading water without generating much forward progress. The final quarter of the novel, however, bursts into hardcore thriller mode, during a destructive island storm when buried secrets and hidden motivations finally rise to the surface and boil over with unexpected menace and murderous betrayals.

 

Note: I received a free eGalley of The Resort from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any sales resulting from links to Amazon products on these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

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City in Ruins by Don Winslow – Review

Posted on January 25, 2024 by John
City in Ruins (Winslow)

City in Ruins (Don Winslow)

City in Ruins
by Don Winslow

William Morrow
General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 02 Apr 2024

DESCRIPTION/SYNOPSIS:

Following City on Fire and City of Dreams, City in Ruins is the explosive, impossible to put down conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Don Winslow’s epic, genre-defining crime trilogy and the final book of Winslow’s extraordinary career.

Sometimes you have to become what you hate to protect what you love. Danny Ryan is rich. Beyond his wildest dreams rich.

The former dock worker, Irish mob soldier and fugitive from the law is now a respected businessman – a Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire silent partner in a group that owns two lavish hotels. Finally, Danny has it all: a beautiful house, a child he adores, a woman he might even fall in love with.

Life is good. But then Danny reaches too far.

When he tries to buy an old hotel on a prime piece of real estate with plans to build his dream resort, he triggers a war against Las Vegas power brokers, a powerful FBI agent bent on revenge and a rival casino owner with dark connections of his own.

Danny thought he had buried his past, but now it reaches up to him from the grave to pull him down. Old enemies surface, and when they come for Danny they vow to take everything – not only his empire, not just his life, but all that he holds dear, including his son.

To save his life and everything he loves, Danny must become the ruthless fighter he once was – and never wanted to be again.

Ranging from the gritty back rooms of Providence, RI to the power corridors of Washington, DC and Wall Street to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, City in Ruins is an epic crime novel of love and hate, ambition and desperation, vengeance and compassion.

REVIEW:

City on Fire, the first book in Don Winslow’s crime trilogy (part homage to the story of Helen of Troy) was a revelation to me. Clearly, one of my favorite books read in s023, I devoured it. No surprise it received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist and Kirkus. Trust me, if you were a fan of the television show Sopranos, you will love City on Fire, along with the rest of the trilogy.

Immediately after reading City on Fire, I read the sequel, City of Dreams, which transports Danny Ryan—after suffering a personal tragedy—from the organized crime turf war in Rhode Island to the glitzy world of showbiz in California. Coming up for air, I began my patient wait for the third and final book in the trilogy, City in Ruins…

(Fortunately, that anticipated long wait became much shorter when I noticed the final book was available for review through NetGalley. I promptly logged my request for a review copy—and was overjoyed when I received an approval.)

It’s fair to say that Danny Ryan—despite his rebound from hunted fugitive to financial success in City of Dreams, bolstered by even more success leading up to City in Ruins and his move to Las Vegas—is a haunted man. Haunted by the personal tragedies that befell him at the end of the first and second books in the “City…” trilogy.” But also haunted by the sins of his past, and the burden of his bad reputation, which he can never completely shake no matter how much he tries to go legit. And though he acknowledges the mistakes of his past and tries to suppress his own conscience, the debt that goes along with that guilt takes physical form in the vengeful FBI agent who refuses to let him off the hook, despite multiple ‘hands-off’ warnings from her superiors.

Despite all attempts to avoid repeating the mistakes of his past, Danny Ryan gets pulled back into the vicious circle of attacks and reprisals that marked his mobster days in Rhode Island. But can he escape before paying the ultimate price? Much of the suspense in the final volume of the trilogy is waiting to find out if there is any hope for Danny or if he is doomed to an inevitable collapse into the titular ‘ruins.’

I highly recommend you read City in Ruins—but only after reading City on Fire followed by City of Dreams. This trilogy is the arc of a life seeking redemption along with success, with this final book informed by the events of the past that helped shape Danny Ryan’s personality, while also showing how he affected—and continues to influence—those around him. Rest assured, all three books are highly entertaining, filled with colorful (criminal and otherwise) characters, humorous situations and dialogue, unexpected twists, pleasant surprises, sudden violence, and more than a few gut punches. And, in the final pages, there is hope and satisfaction to be found… but maybe not in the way the reader expects. Though I have a special appreciation for City on Fire, all three books in the trilogy are thoroughly enthralling.

 

Note: I received a free eGalley of City in Ruins (link) from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any sales resulting from links to Amazon products on these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

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The Night House by Joe Nesbo – Review

Posted on October 17, 2023 by John

The Night House - Joe NesboThe Night House
A Novel
by Jo Nesbo

Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf
General Fiction (Adult) | Horror
Pub Date: October 3, 2023

DESCRIPTION/SYNOPSIS:

From the internationally best-selling author, a chilling fresh spin on the classic horror novel • When the voices call, don’t answer.

In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank-called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .

She’s going to burn. The girl you love is going to burn. There’s nothing you can do about it.

When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence—and preserve his sanity—as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.

Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .

REVIEW:

[Reviewers Note: I don’t include plot point spoilers in my review but, in this case, revealing the structure of the book itself might be considered a spoiler.]

In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to the last line of The Night House description. Like many other novels, Jo Nesbo’s novel is structured in three parts, but where The Night House differs is that each part is almost a different book (and different genre) unto itself, with recurring character names throughout, but not always playing the same characters.

The first part of The Night House presents as a YA horror novel, and my first impression was that the viewpoint — or rather, the intended audience — was probably younger than the young adult stories that generally appeal to me, basically middle grade YA. This is in regard to the dialogue, situations, and behavior of the characters. Nonetheless, the horror premise (inciting incident, at least) of a phone swallowing someone whole had me intrigued. So, I hung in there seeing where the story would go. To my surprise, after part one, there is a complete reset, a fast forward of approximately ten years, the story settling into New Adult category at this point. We learn that a lot of what transpired in the first part didn’t really happen as we were led to believe, which might seem obvious, but genre readers have a strong ability to suspend disbelief and go with the unnatural flow. Finally, in the third part of the novel, the genre (or rather, category) switches again, to mainstream YA fiction in a way I won’t give away.

I revealed the three part structure mainly to explain my reaction to the novel. It’s a clever device, with a satisfying ending, and a lot of readers will appreciate the author’s structural legerdemain. And yet, it also feels like three different moods via three different novellas, and it was hard to get totally invested in any of the three before the structural switch to the next part. Of the three parts, my favorite was the middle section, which I thought had the creepiest potential.

 

Note: I received a free eGalley of The Night House from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any sales resulting from links to Amazon products on these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

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System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, 7) by Martha Wells – Review

Posted on September 19, 2023 by John

System Collapse - Martha Wells target=System Collapse
by Martha Wells

Tor Publishing Group
Sci Fi & Fantasy
Pub Date: 14 Nov 2023

DESCRIPTION/SYNOPSIS:

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment in Martha Wells’s New York Times bestselling Murderbot Diaries series.

Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.

REVIEW:

I love the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, with my favorite being Network Effect, which truly kicks ass. (My least favorite was Fugitive Telemetry, mainly because I didn’t think the whodunit format worked all that well. And Network Effect is a hard act to follow!) So I welcomed the opportunity to review an eGalley of the newest Sec Unit tale, System Collapse, due out in November.

Where does System Collapse fall between the last two, in terms of strength of story? Much closer to Network Effect, though it picks up the story-line of Preservation’s encounter with the unscrupulous Barish-Estranza corporation.

On one side are the humanitarian Preserveration folk (along with our favorite SecUnit); on the other side, the ruthless Barish-Estranza corporation. Both sides are vying for the hearts and minds of colonists who are also dealing with dangerous alien-tech-contamination. Moreover, the Preservation team finds out about a separatist group of colonists who are even more clueless about what’s happening. Naturally, having no history with either side, these colonists have no idea who to trust—or who to fear! If they make the wrong choice, they’ll end up as slave labor for the rest of their natural lives. Complicating matters, SecUnit can’t trust itself after a hallucinatory episode and an unexpected shutdown.

SecUnit has always been the model of competence and efficiency, in terms of security, keeping its team safe from outside threats and, sometimes, from their own ill-advised choices. Introducing self-doubt is a significant problem when every choice becomes a life-or-death decision, adding another layer of suspense to a situation that is already tense. The reason for the eponymous “system collapse” is never fully explained, so I wonder if that will be the subject of the next Murderbot Diaries installment.

With SecUnit’s unexpected (and certainly unwelcome) layer of fallibility in the mix, System Collapse builds to a nail-biting conclusion, since any mistake, any hesitation can lead to fatal results for SecUnit and its team, and a life of misery for the colonists they’ve been sent to rescue. It remains to be seen if the “system collapse” is a one-time fluke, something SecUnit will completely recover from and be forgotten… or if it signals another step toward greater humanity for our beloved MurderBot.

The Murderbot Diaries

All Systems Red
Artificial Condition
Rogue Protocol
Exit Strategy
Network Effect (A Murderbot novel)
Fugitive Telemetry
System Collapse

 

Note: I received a free eGalley of System Collapse from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any links to Amazon products from these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

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The Quiet Tenant (Clémence Michallon) – Review

Posted on August 6, 2023 by John

The Quiet Tenant - MichallonThe Quiet Tenant
Clémence Michallon

Knopf
Mystery/Thriller
Pub Date: 20 Jun 2023

DESCRIPTION/SYNOPSIS:

A PULSE-POUNDING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER ABOUT A SERIAL KILLER NARRATED BY THOSE CLOSEST TO HIM: HIS 13-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, HIS GIRLFRIEND—AND THE ONE VICTIM HE HAS SPARED

Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate New York town where he lives. He’s the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. But Aidan has a dark secret he’s been keeping from everyone in town and those closest to him. He’s a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women and there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed, fearing for her life.

When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend” who needs a place to stay. Aidan is betting on Rachel, after five years of captivity, being too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and survivor, and recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan’s secret.

Told through the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan’s crimes on the women in his life—and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. Both a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power, The Quiet Tenant is an electrifying debut thriller by a major talent.

REVIEW:

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon is a dark tale of psychological suspense about Aiden, a widowed serial killer told from the perspectives of his 13-year-old daughter, his potential love interest (next victim?), and the one victim “Rachel” he has not killed, but rather has kept captive for the past five years, first in a shed then, after a move, alternately handcuffed to a radiator and a bed frame in a guest bedroom. The heart of this story and most of the suspense comes from the victim’s viewpoint, which is told in the second person making the sense of suffocating dread even more effective.

Rachel has discovered, via trial and error, rules for survival that she adapts over time and through differing circumstances, learning which behaviors will trigger the wrath of her captor and which will ensure her continued survival in precarious circumstances. Aiden exerts unwavering control over his captive, forcing her to suppress her own identity and memories, lest she give in to despair. Even when there is a glimmer of hope of escape, Rachel fears to make the attempt for fear that it is a trap, destined to trick her into giving Aiden an excuse to finally kill her.

The story and the suspense kicks into a high gear once Aiden moves Rachel from the backyard shed of his old home (through a subtle manipulation by Rachel based upon her years-long psychological study of her captor’s motivations) into the guest bedroom of his new home, describing her as a down-on-her-luck room renter to his oblivious daughter, and when Aiden’s new love interest becomes curious about what is going on in Aiden’s home.

The Quiet Tenant is a well-written study of a victim enduring unspeakable treatment for years yet keeping a glimmer of hope alive enough to attempt a final act of bravery that will either doom her to a quick death or grant her freedom at last. While the story is psychologically disturbing, you won’t be overwhelmed by gore or violence. But it will keep you breathless through the final pages.

 

Note: I received a free eGalley of The Quiet Tenant from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any links to Amazon products from these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

 

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Quick Reviews – Recently Read Book Recommendations

Posted on July 2, 2023 by John

DROWING (Newman)DROWNING: The Rescue of Flight 1421 (T.J. NEWMAN): This book is a lean, mean, rescue/race-against-the-clock thriller with a lot of heart and a gut-punch or two. I previously—and favorably—reviewed Newman’s debut novel FALLING. DROWNING tops it. I basically read this in a day. You won’t want to put it down. New York Times Bestseller Don Winslow said this “reads like APOLLO 13 underwater.” He’s not wrong.

 

 

SHUTTER (Emerson)SHUTTER (RAMONA EMERSON): From the perspective of a forensic photographer who sees the ghosts of the victims at crime scenes, this is an entertaining mix of crime novel  and supernatural thriller from an indigenous author. This might be my new favorite genre mashup!

 

 

 

 

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED (Cosby)ALL THE SINNERS BLEED (S. A. COSBY): What starts as a terrifying school shooting in the small town of Charon, South Carolina, turns into a race to stop a truly horrifying serial killer. Newly elected sheriff Titus Crown, who has an impressive but checkered past as an FBI agent, may have met his match. Another tight thriller.

 

 

 

THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN (Hoffs)THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN (Susanna Hoffs): Yes, that Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles) has written a heartfelt novel filled with wit and humor and some inside stuff on the vicissitudes of the music business. This is not my normal type of read, but I was curious to get some insider scoop on the life of a pop star. This breezy novel is a romantic delight. If you’re into that kind of thing.

 

 

 

 

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any links to Amazon products from these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

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The Edge of Sleep (Jake Emanuel, Willie Block) – Review

Posted on July 2, 2023 by John

The Edge Of Sleep - Jake Emanuel, Willie BlockThe Edge of Sleep
Jake Emanuel, Willie Block

St. Martin’s Press
SF/Horror
Pages: 304
Pub Date: June 20, 2023

DESCRIPTION/SYNOPSIS:

What if the whole world fell asleep…and didn’t wake up again?

Dave Torres, a night watchman in a placid coastal town, knows all about sleep troubles. Since childhood, he’s battled terrors and nightmares. Sometimes those battles leak into his waking life, with disastrous consequences for those he loves. Now Dave lives alone and self-medicates to neutralize his dreams. It’s not much of a life, he knows.

The morning after Independence Day, Santa Mira, California, is so quiet Dave can hear the ocean from miles away. Traffic signals blink from red to green over empty intersections. Storefronts remain locked up tight. Every radio station whispers static.

And all over town, there are bodies, lying right where their owners left them. Dead right where they slept.

Dave—along with his ex-girlfriend, Katie, his best friend, Matteo, and Linda, a nurse he’s just met—struggle to unravel the mystery before sleep overtakes them all.

Except the answer to the mystery might lie in the one place that frightens Dave most: His twisted, unnerving dreams. Now Dave and his friends must straddle the liminal boundary between life and death as they fight to save everyone they’ve ever loved—and to keep their eyes open.

Because if any of them falls asleep now, it will be the last thing they ever do.

REVIEW:

Either I never knew or had forgotten that The Edge of Sleep is based on  a well-known podcast, so that information did not color my reading experience at all. It is, however, the first novel I’ve read that was based upon that particular medium. I requested a copy of the eGalley because I was intrigued by the premise: if you fall sleep, you die. That simple. And I was instantly curious how that would play out, as everyone needs to sleep, eventually, or it does not end well. The story had a bit of a rough start, with way too many “homeys” laced in the dialogue between Dave and Matteo. A few go a long way. After that, I thought the novel gained momentum, as the two discover endless bodies of those who had the expected misfortune of simply falling asleep. The authors lighten the mood quite a bit with more humor than I would have expected given the circumstances. But I began to wonder at the repeated scenes of random people drifting off to dreamland for the final time. It’s hard to wring much suspense out of people falling asleep, especially if they are not the main characters in the tale. Of course, by the time the characters we truly care about are fighting off exhaustion, the situation comes off as appropriately dire. The clock is literally ticking on how long they can go without eventually succumbing to sleep. This is when the story is most effective.

Our heroes seem ill-equipped to handle the problems with which they are faced, to somehow solve or even truly investigate the phenomenon of global apocalypse of death by sleep pandemic. (And for a global pandemic type of story, the cast is surprising small, which might be a result of its podcast origins, I’m guessing.) While Dave, a night watchman by trade, has had a lifelong history of nightmares and night terrors, which has put him at odds with sleep in general, it hardly seems a likely resume to get him out of trouble in the long term or help in resolving the story. Matteo has a military background as a drone pilot, the consequences of which still haunt him and cause ongoing nightmares as well. Linda, a nurse who joins the crew after they visit her desolate ER, has access to meds and advice on how to keep them going without sleep for as long as possible.

Overall, this novel is difficult to review in that it withholds its answers (some of them, anyway) until the last few pages, and at that point, the story takes a couple unexpected turns (twists) which don’t completely pay off, so the reader is left hanging (kept awake!) for a presumed sequel which, without going into any spoilers, projects as a big genre shift in the storytelling. So, I’m of two minds with this book. I love suspense, and there’s plenty to be had here—even if most of it involves who will fall asleep versus who can stay awake the longest—but I would have preferred a wider net and more closure to wrap up this first volume.

 

Note: I received a free eGalley of The Edge of Sleep from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any links to Amazon products from these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

 

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Sing Her Down (Ivy Pochoda) – Review

Posted on June 7, 2023 by John

Sing Her Down - Ivy Pochoda (front cover)Sing Her Down
Ivy Pochoda

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD
Mystery & Thrillers
Pages: 288
Pub Date: May 23, 2023

DESCRIPTION:

No Country for Old Men meets Killing Eve in this gritty, feminist Western thriller from the award-winning author of These Women.

SYNOPSIS:

Florence “Florida” Baum is not the hapless innocent she claims to be when she arrives at the Arizona women’s prison—or so her ex-cellmate, Diosmary Sandoval, keeps insinuating.

Dios knows the truth about Florida’s crimes, understands the truth that Florence hides even from herself: that she wasn’t a victim of circumstance, an unlucky bystander misled by a bad man. Dios knows that darkness lives in women too, despite the world’s refusal to see it. And she is determined to open Florida’s eyes and unleash her true self.

When an unexpected reprieve gives both women their freedom, Dios’s fixation on Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles.

With blistering, incisive prose, the award-winning author Ivy Pochoda delivers a razor-sharp Western. Gripping and immersive, Sing Her Down is a spellbinding thriller setting two indelible women on a path to certain destruction and an epic, stunning showdown.

ADVANCE PRAISE:

“I read everything Ivy Pochoda writes. Her capture of the complexities, diversities, and insanities of today’s life and culture is next to none. I loved Sing Her Down. The world will too.”
—Michael Connelly, author of Desert Star

“A thoroughly entertaining, mean-as-a-snake modern Western, Sing Her Down hits like a shotgun blast.”
—Dennis Lehane, author of Small Mercies

“Sing Her Down is that rare novel that explodes your expectations from the very first page and goes on doing so until the end. Ivy Pochoda finds these characters at the root of their pain and desire. The prose is flayed and taut, the iconic episodes just keep stacking up, and the entirety has the epic intensity of a murder ballad.”
—Jonathan Lethem, author of The Arrest

REVIEW:

Lately, I’ve been in a western frame of mind. So when I read the description of — and advance praise for — Sing Her Down as a gritty, modern, feminist western, I requested an eGalley from Net Galley to check it out. I was unfamiliar with Pochoda’s earlier work, but Sing Her Down certainly seemed like something I would enjoy. You probably sense a ‘but’ coming and that’s fair. What I want to say is that, for me at least, the advance categorizing of the novel as a western never really clicked. The story starts with two women, Florida (Florence Baum) and Dios (Diosmary Sandoval), in prison, and both are subsequently released due to overcrowding at the height of Covid-19 precautions. (Many of the nation’s responses to the epidemic—abandoned cities, people sequestered at home, masking, and social distancing—play a large part in the setting of Sing Her Down.) This is the first novel I’ve read where Covid-19 plays such an overt role in the plot. The nationwide isolation is mirrored in microcosm by Florida and Dios, as the ex-cons never really connect with anyone even after escaping the confines of the prison, and mostly remain locked in their own obsessions and internal conflicts. For example, Dios stalks Florida throughout the story, obsessed with the woman who came from wealthy and refuses to acknowledge her penchant for violence; meanwhile, Florida seeks to separate herself from the other woman at every turn. Undaunted, Dios pursues Florida like an exterior conscience. Dios’ motivation is never clear, other than possibly trying to expose a kindred spirit.

In my reading experience, Sing Her Down is more a character study of these two women, along with Lobos, the police detective determined to track them down after a murder on a bus links back to the two ex-cons. As a character study, the story is strong, the violence unapologetic, the prose hard, knife-edged, and unflinching, never compromised by sentimentality, befitting its flawed subjects. Yet, the post-prison plot remains relatively thin, lacking sufficient conflict between the principles to read as a page-turning thriller—though it skirts the edges of thrillerdom a few times! For large parts of the story, the conflict remains internal, with the lead characters tormented by self-doubt and their dark pasts, freighted with physical and sexual abuse and exploitation. In summation, the story delivered something other than what its marketing message promised. Since this isn’t quite the novel I expected, I find myself in the days since completing it trying to forget the advance hype and weigh the novel on its own merits.

 

Note: I received a free eGalley of Sing Her Down from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any links to Amazon products from these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

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Paradise-1 (Red Space Book 1) – David Wellington – Review

Posted on April 6, 2023 by John

Paradise-1 David WellingtonParadise-1 (Red Space Book 1)
David Wellington

Orbit Books
(April 4, 2023)

DESCRIPTION:

An electric blend of sci-if and horror, Paradise-1 begins a terrifying new trilogy of exploration and survival in deep space from Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated author David Wellington.

“A superior space thriller that never flags….Readers will be on the edge of their seats.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

SYNOPSIS:

An electrifying novel perfect for fans of science fiction and horror, Paradise-1 follows two agents from the United Earth Government as they investigate the complete disappearance of humanity’s first deep space colony.

When Special Agent Petrov and Dr. Lei Zhang are woken up from cryogenic sleep, dragged freezing and dripping wet out of their pods with the ships’s alarms blaring in the background, they know something is very wrong. Warned by the Captain that they’re under attack, they have no choice but to investigate.

It doesn’t take much time to learn that they’ve been met by another vessel—a vessel from Paradis-One, Earth’s first deep-space colony, and their final destination.

Worse still, the vessel is empty. And it carries with it the message that all communications from the 150,000 souls inhabiting the Paradis-One has completely ceased.

Petrov and Zhang must board the empty ship and delve further into deep space to discover the truth of the colony’s disappearance—but the further they go, the more dangers loom.

REVIEW:

Paradise-1 (book one of the Red Space trilogy) surprised me. I began the novel expecting a science fiction tale, a thriller yes, but mostly SF. Yet the story has some truly horrific situations and imagery. If, like me, you are a horror reader, this tale certainly delivers on that front. And if you’re a fan of the movies Alien and Gravity, this story will be of particular interest. At 700+ pages, this is a long novel, but unlike other lengthy tomes, it gets off to a quick start. After disobeying orders, Firewatch inspector Alexandra Petrova is sent to check on a distant colony on the planet Paradise-1. Picture an earthbound story of a big-city FBI agent who defies orders and is sent from a high profile posting in a big city post to a sleepy town somewhere in the midwest, a remote place where once promising careers go to die. Now transfer that situation to space, and you feel the pain of Petrova’s “demotion.””

At this point, I was anticipating a slow build to the next phase of Petrova’s journey, but she is awakened violently from cryosleep with her ship under attack and coming apart at the seams. Nothing is what she — or the reader — expected from that point forward. What follows is a series of bizarre encounters filled with nonstop waves of suspense and unadulterated dread as Petrova and her small band of odd shipmates (I want to avoid spoilers here) encounter a mysterious and unique entity known only as the “basilisk” with the power to destroy humanity with a literal thought. The effect of the basilisk takes many forms, different on each ship in the blockade around the colony planet, from mystifying to gruesome but all, ultimately, deadly. Nothing is what it seems and no one is safe.

I mentioned the book is long, especially for a thriller, but the plot never dragged, and certainly held my interest throughout. As I also mentioned, this is book one of a trilogy and, be warned, though the book has an interim resolution, it definitely leaves you hanging on the true nature of the basilisk as well as the underlying reason for its existence. The second book can’t come soon enough!

 

Note: I received a free eGalley of Paradise-1  from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any links to Amazon products from these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

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The Cabinet of Dr. Leng: A Pendergast Novel (Preston & Child) – Review

Posted on January 2, 2023 by John

The Cabinet of Dr. Leng - Preston/Child (A Pendergast Novel)The Cabinet of Dr. Leng
(A Pendergast Novel)
Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Grand Central Publishing
(January 17, 2023)

SYNOPSIS:

The tremendous new thriller in Preston & Child’s #1 bestselling series features FBI Special Agent Pendergast and Constance Greene in their most extraordinary circumstances yet.

AN INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

Astoundingly, Constance has found a way back to the place of her origins, New York City in the late 1800s, leaping at the chance, although it means leaving the present forever.

A DESPERATE OPPORTUNITY

Constance sets off on a quest to prevent the events that lead to the deaths of her sister and brother. But along the road to redemption, Manhattan’s most infamous serial killer, Dr. Enoch Leng, lies in wait, ready to strike at the slightest provocation.

UNIMAGINABLE ODDS

Meanwhile, in contemporary New York, Pendergast feverishly searches for a way to reunite with Constance—but will he discover a way back to her before it’s too late?

REVIEW:

I enjoyed the true commitment-to-genre ending of Bloodless, the previous Agent Pendergast novel. I was expecting a feint to a mundane explanation for the events of that story, so was pleasantly surprised when Preston & Child went for it, so to speak. Naturally, I was looking forward to The Cabinet of Dr. Leng, as a continuation of that cliffhanger, and was delighted when I got the chance to read an eGalley ahead of the pub date, courtesy of Net Galley. As many readers of the Pendergast novels might guess, The Cabinet of Dr. Leng is the middle book in a trilogy of sorts. (The authors are calling it a quartet, as it expands upon the Dr. Leng story told in my favorite entry in 21-book (so far) series, The Cabinet of Curiosities.)

The novel sets in motion four main plot threads. A distraught Pendergast needs to find a way to follow Constance into the parallel world experiencing a 1918 timeline now that the machine that transported her there has been destroyed. Agent Armstrong Coldmoon, after finally getting his new assignment, investigates a murder on a Lakota reservation. Vincent D’Agosta, similarly, is investigating a murder in the New York Museum of Natural History. Finally, Constance Greene—intent on rescuing her young siblings and the alternate young version of herself from the ravages of society and the deadly depredations of Dr. Leng himself—reinvents herself as a countess navigating high society in the Gilded Age to put herself within Leng’s social orbit.

Pendergast worries that Constance is no match for the brilliant and merciless Dr. Leng, and that her plan for revenge will result in her own death. Sure enough, Leng soon becomes suspicious of the “Countess” and begins to question her identity and motives in a cat and mouse game that soon becomes deadly. As the individual plots begin to overlap and connect to varying degrees, it becomes clear that the book would end without a resolution, basically “to be continued.”

I usually don’t spend a lot of time going over the plot of a book in my reviews since the synopsis (and back cover text) covers it well enough, and I worry about unintentional spoilers. The Pendergast books, are more of an ongoing story, with multiple trilogies within the almost two dozen volumes. The characters and situations evolve and change without a reset-to-square-one of other long-running book series. Event the first and second books in the trilogies provide a satisfying reading experience despite the fact that all the plot threads aren’t resolved until the third book, to varying degrees. If you are a long-time fan of the Pendergast books, you know what to expect.

Barring a final book stumble, the Dr. Leng trilogy (quartet) is a set up to be my favorite of the Pendergast trilogies. The Cabinet of Dr. Leng is an engrossing and satisfying read despite its status as a middle book. Nevertheless, the wait for the ultimate resolution will be excruciating. If I had to make a prediction, I expect Enoch Leng will find his way from his world into ours, and may live on as a formidable foe going forward—a psychopath out of time—for Constance and Pendergast.

Note: I received a free eGalley of The Cabinet of Dr. Leng from Net Galley in consideration of an unbiased review.

This site is a member of the Amazon affiliate partnership program. As such, any links to Amazon products from these pages might generate a small commission for the site, which helps keep the proverbial lights on—but does not affect the price you pay at Amazon.

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