Lesa's Book Critiques: Last One Out by Jane Harper

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Last One Out by Jane Harper

Lesa's Book Critiques: Future Boy by Michael J. Fox

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Future Boy by Michael J. Fox

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Survivors by Jane Harper

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Survivors by Jane Harper

Review: King of Ashes: A Novel by S. A. Cosby

 

A frequent theme of S. A. Cosby’s work, beyond racism, is the idea of a family haunted by a horrible tragic legacy. A legacy that goes back decades and is once again brought to light, eventually, in the here and now, by a massive triggering event. Such is the case in the latest book, King of Ashes: A Novel.

 

Roman Carruthers runs a wealth management firm in Atlanta. His clients, rappers, and others, sometimes need creative accounting. Sometimes they need a problem fixed and Roman turns those situations over to Khali. Not only is a friend from way back, the man has skills, and has put them to use in a variety of ways for various clients of the company, Carruthers and Associates. Roman has some of the best people in the business and that is a good thing because, as the novel begins, he has to go home to Virginia as his dad is in the hospital and in a coma.

 

It doesn’t play to be in a car hit by a freight train. He was and he may not survive. The Carruthers family is a legend in Jefferson Run, Virginia. Part of that is the fact that his parents, built from the ground up, a crematorium business that has been used for decades by families from miles around. While that is very positive, the other part of the legend is that after their mom vanished without a trace a number of years ago, quite a few folks became convinced that their father killed their mom and burned up the body and all the evidence.

 

For Roman, Neveah, and Dante, that disappearance and resulting speculation has haunted them nearly their entire lives. They were kids when it happened and their childhoods ended the day she vanished.

 

Roman, the oldest, eventually went on to college and has a well-paying life down in Atlanta. Neveah stepped into their mom’s shoes and took over taking care of dad and keeping the business going. The youngest, Dante, is circling deeper and deeper in a pit of alcohol, drugs, and other vices. The family, what is left of it, is a shell of what it was and rotting from within.

 

Now their father, the possible murderer of their mom, and the man known to all as the “King of Ashes” lies in a coma. From what Naveah says, somebody might have tried to kill him. If so, it would be the latest in a string of events that have happened in recent weeks. Naveah didn’t bother to tell him as Roman was in Atlanta and hasn’t been home to help in years. Now he is and he plans on digging into what happened.

 

What follows is a complicated and often violent crime fiction read as Roman tries to save his family from the situation and their own self-destructive impulses. He has those same impulses in his own way as well as he tries to right wrongs and come to terms with a horrible and tragic family legacy.

 

There is a lot going on via multiple levels as one would expect from this talented author. I’m certainly not going to disrespect the author or the work by revealing any more of the story or the themes in the work. Certainly not a read for the squeamish as violence abounds, this is a work that will linger in the mind long after the read is finished.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4ljBI0P

 

As expected, the publisher, Flatiron Books, totally ignored my multi month request on NetGalley, so I had to wait for the Dallas Public Library System to get it in. The digital version arrived first, via Libby/Overdrive, ending the need for the print version that is just now arriving in the system.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Save Me from Dangerous Men by Saul Lelchuk

Save Me from Dangerous Men by Saul Lelchuk (Flatiron Books, 2019) is the debut appearance of Nikki Griffin, a bookstore owner in Oakland, California, by day and a private investigator and vigilante by night. Griffin is forever scarred by a childhood tragedy. She finds purpose in helping women escape domestic violence. She has poor impulse control that finally landed her in some legal trouble; several of the chapters in the book document sessions of court-ordered anger management counseling.

Griffin’s routine of books and stakeouts is disrupted when the CEO of a local tech company hires her to follow an employee believed to be selling corporate secrets. A cash retainer of $20,000 makes the job hard to turn down. Griffin attaches a GPS tracker to the employee’s car and learns her routine. She decides what she sees and what she’s been told don’t add up and she initiates a conversation with the employee, during which she becomes convinced industrial espionage is not why she was hired. She turns her investigation back to the CEO and the company and their new monitoring software due to be released in a matter of weeks, and mayhem ensues. Oversized men with guns become extremely interested in what she knows and what evidence she may have to back it up.

Chapters on the investigation are interspersed with chapters about her bookstore, about her efforts to help women escape unhappy or abusive situations, and about a Berkeley graduate student who wants a relationship. Booklovers will adore her store, which has become a community center. And the scenic descriptions of Bay Area architecture and landmarks that unfold as Griffin goes about her days firmly set the context, along with some thoughtful commentary on the role of technology in 21^st century life.

On the other hand, nearly half way through the book Lelchuk employs a plot device so old and so contrived that I cringed when I saw it. Anyone who can create a likable, over-the-top character like Nikki Griffin with a fine supporting cast should be able to make a story move better than that. Nonstop action and well-planned fight scenes round out an excellent thriller. Especially for fans of Jonathan Graves, Orphan X, Peter Ash, and Jack Reacher.

Starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly.

 

·         Publisher: ‎ Flatiron Books; Reprint edition (March 9, 2021)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Paperback: ‎ 352 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 1250170265

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1250170262

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: The Defense by Steve Cavanagh

Steve Cavanagh’s fourth book about Eddie Flynn won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in July 2019 amidst formidable competition, which says just how good a read it is. Since I hadn’t encountered Eddie previously, I started at the beginning with The Defense (Flatiron Books, 2016) and found it an excellent legal thriller as well as a witty story of a resourceful con man trying to go straight and giving up when a law-abiding life couldn’t protect his family.

Eddie Flynn is a former grifter who learned the trade from his father. He abandoned a lucrative life running scams to attend law school and lead an average life. After a defense case gone horribly off the rails, he sold his share of his law practice and hit the sauce far too hard, losing his wife and daughter in the process. One morning awhile after Eddie began his slow climb back to sobriety, a member of the Russian mafia kidnaps him for a meeting with his chief, who is out on bail before his trial for homicide. The mafia chief Volchek explains to Eddie that he is holding Eddie’s daughter hostage until Eddie gets Volchek acquitted by killing the main witness against him.

In a desperate bid to save his daughter and stay out of jail himself, Eddie resurrects all of his rusty swindler’s tricks to outsmart the Russian gangsters as well as uses his considerable legal expertise to tap dance his way through a murder trial he’s had no time to prepare for. When it becomes clear the Russians have members of law enforcement on their payroll and no assistance can be expected from that quarter, Eddie has no choice but to call on the people he knew in his other life for help. They include his childhood friend who is now the leader of an Italian crime family, with his own agenda where the Russians are concerned.

An original and gripping plot with a host of first-rate characters. The suspense is expertly developed, resulting in some harrowing scenes, for instance, where Eddie scales the front of the old and crumbling courthouse building. Eddie Flynn is an exceptionally fine addition to the ranks of fictional lawyers, and I am pleased to make his acquaintance. 

Shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Thriller of the Year.

Publishers Weekly starred review

·         Hardcover: 320 pages

·         Publisher: Flatiron Books; 1st edition (May 3, 2016)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 1250082250

·         ISBN-13: 978-1250082251

Aubrey Hamilton ©2019

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Lesa's Book Critiques: If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

Lesa's Book Critiques: If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Force of Nature by Jane Harper

Force of Nature by Jane Harper (Flatiron Books, 2018) is the second mystery featuring Australian Federal Agent Aaron Falk. Falk is still recovering from his injuries incurred in his debut adventure (The Dry, 2017) when he’s notified that a potential witness in an extensive corporate money-laundering investigation he’s been conducting has disappeared. Alice Russell was on a corporate-mandated team-building exercise in the Australian wilderness with some of the company executives Falk expected her to implicate and disappeared on the second day.

Five women from different parts of the company and at different levels of responsibility enter the dense forest with a map, compass, flashlight, and other supplies. Only four of them emerge days later, all with injuries of some kind and all telling slightly different stories. They do agree that Alice was a disagreeable companion and not at all helpful when the group realized they took a wrong turn while trying to reach the second night’s campsite.

The employees on the team-building trek include a senior vice-president and a clerk from the filing department and mid-level managers, so all have completely different perspectives on the organization and different reasons for obscuring their individual contributions to the disappearance. The character of each woman is sketched carefully and credibly, which is one of the features of this novel that makes it so readable. The plot reminds me strongly of Picnic at Hanging Rock, an early film from Peter Weir in which students on a school picnic disappear.

While Falk is trying to elicit meaningful information from them to figure out what happened to his witness, his bosses are still leaning on him to produce contracts and other records that document the money-laundering trail through the company. He does manage to meet their expectations, just not in the way he thought he would. Falk is a thoughtful, sympathetic character and one that I will be happy to continue to read about. A complex, layered story with strong characterization and an overwhelming sense of place.

·         Hardcover: 336 pages

·         Publisher: Flatiron Books; First Edition (February 6, 2018)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 1250105633

·         ISBN-13: 978-1250105639

Aubrey Hamilton ©2018

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Crime Watch: Review: THE DRY by Jane Harper

Crime Watch: Review: THE DRY: THE DRY by Jane Harper (Flatiron Books, 2017) Reviewed by Craig Sisterson Luke Hadler turns a gun on his wife and child, then himself....