Closed Doors
By Lisa O’Donnell
Harper. $26.99 (Rating: Very Good)
Thatcherism is at its height, the country has just entered the Falklands War and in a small village on the West Coast of Scotland eleven-year-old Michael Murray is about to be changed forever in this unforgettable coming of age novel.
Not only is this precocious youngster preparing for a talent show, engaging in his favorite game of hacky sack and keeping an eye on his arch nemesis who lives down the street, but he is also trying to piece together what is going on behind closed doors in his own family. Something really bad has happened to his mother but the youth doesn’t know what.
Listening at closed doors to conversations grown-ups don’t want him to hear, Michael looks for an explanation for the bruises on his mother’s face. Was his father responsible? Some of the villagers think so but that may not be the truth. As the whispers at home and out in the village are too loud to ignore, this mere boy sets out to find the truth even though it will alter his life forever.
Told from Michael’s perspective, this is a story that will hook you from the outset and keep you reading long into the evening. Lisa O’Donnell’s first novel, “The Death of Bees”, won the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize and this latest effort is certainly as good if not better.
Wild Storm
By Richard Castle
Kingswell/Disney. $25.99 (Rating: Good)
Four planes spin out of control but unfortunately only one of them has superspy Derrick Storm on board. An unbelievable wing walk by Storm saves his airliner from disaster and it manages to land safely. The others make tragic headlines.
What’s happening here is that a futuristic weapon, a laser, has fallen into the hands of a deranged group of terrorists who intend to pick up where the Madmen behind 9/11 left off.
Only one man can stop them and that individual is, of course, Derrick Storm. The job will take him from Monaco to Panama and then Egypt. Along the way this indomitable agent will enlist the assistance of attractive archeologist Katie Comely.
Nonstop action is the hallmark of this series. If some of Derrick Storm’s feats of derring-do seem slightly implausible, remember that James Bond’s accomplishments were seldom questioned, so cut Storm a little slack too!
The Book of You
By Claire Kendal
Harper. $25.99 (Rating: Very Good)
The first person narrative of a woman being emotionally and physically terrorized by a man bent on possessing her, Claire Kendal’s debut novel presents a chilling portrait of a relationship that has gone completely off the rails.
Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, as well as love and fixation Clarissa, the story’s protagonist, finds herself stalked after one regrettable night when she admitted Rafe into her bed.
A colleague of hers at the university where she works, Rafe is an expert on the darker side of folk tales. As her own life takes on the all the earmarks of the latent sexual violence found in some fairy tales, Clarissa realizes she must set down her thoughts and record Rafe’s stalking of her if she is to ever free herself from this nightmare situation.
Of course it soon becomes evident that these two individuals are heading for a climatic encounter that will leave the reader shaken by the final outcome.
Of her novel, Claire Kendal explains that it “explores impossible models of beauty and body image, the way these models permeate our culture, and the lasting damage they cause to the human beings who fall short of them.
“It plays upon the latent sexual violence of the fairy tales; and how easily the socially acceptable face of a hero who unwaveringly pursues the object of his affections becomes something far more dangerous.
“It examines the underside of Romantic notions of love — requites and unrequited — telling a story in which the gestures of chivalry and unwavering devotion can blur into dangerous obsession.”
Samuel Richardson’s eighteenth century epistolary novel “Clarissa” served as the partial inspiration for this story.
Shadow Maker
By James Hannibal
Berkley. $15 (Rating: Good)
The second title in a new series by James Hannibal, this latest Nick Baron adventure has the Air Force Major and his Triple Seven Chase team up against an unknown adversary who has already launched an attack on the National Mall in the nation’s capitol.
Apparently the ultimate goal after a number of attacks is a final apocalypse over Jerusalem. As the story plays out Bardon and his opponent, dubbed The Emissary, are locked in a high stakes digital chess game. Every time he loses a piece on the board, Bardon also loses one of his men.
With time running out and his unit being slowly whittled away, the undercover Cerberus operative is going to have to find his deadly nemesis before the game ends in total disaster.
Introduced in “Shadow Catcher”, Nick Baron is a new action hero who has already shown he is a man to be reckoned with. Military fiction fans will find Baron an intriguing character and one worth following in the years to come.
Hangman
By Stephen Talty
Ballantine. $26 (Rating: Very Good)
Serial killer Marcus Flynn sent chills through the residents of North Buffalo as he preyed on their teenage daughters. Nicknamed “The Hangman”, Flynn was caught and sent to prison. Now he’s escaped during a prison transfer and the reign of terror has started again.
Detective Absalom “Abbie” Kearney has been assigned the case and leads the manhunt to find and again put The Hangman behind bars. Matching wits with the crafty and elusive predator is going to be a challenging task. As Abbie soon discovers, it may be necessary to step outside the law to stop Flynn.
First introduced in Talty’s “Black Irish”, homicide cop Abbie Kearney has captured the attention of a group of avid readers who enjoy fast paced crime thrillers. She’s been lauded as “the most intriguing new suspense protagonist” to come along in recent memory.
This second novel featuring the fetching cop is as good if not better than Abbie’s debut. This is a character you’ll certainly want to follow as she makes her mark in crime fiction.