Review by New York Times Review
"Subtle" is an inadequate word for Ruth Rendell. So are "crafty," "cunning," "clever" and "sly." Although these are accurate descriptions of her confounding technique, a better word would be "surprising." Whatever it is you might think Rendell is up to, especially when she's writing as Barbara Vine - that's not it. THE CHILD'S CHILD (Scribner, $26) is doubly deceptive because its narrative turns on two parallel plots about sexual taboos, each set in a different time frame but dealing with identical themes of love, loyalty, betrayal and murder. The contemporary story is told by Grace Easton, who takes up companionable residence with her older brother, Andrew, a "fashion-conscious gay man," in the spacious house left them by their grandmother. But what seemed a smart move proves otherwise when Andrew falls in love with an exquisite but neurotic young man who moves in and disrupts the household by tangling with Grace, who dismisses him as "one of those gay men who disliked women, all women." He's particularly offended by her Ph.D. thesis on the stigma once attached to "unmarried mothers," enraged that she dares to compare their social condemnation to the persecution of gay men who were "ostracized, attacked, killed." Although it's awkwardly introduced, an unpublished novel written decades earlier provides the parallel plot about another brother and sister who share a home. John Goodwin, a teacher both ashamed of and repelled by his own "homosexualism," resigns himself to a life of celibacy by moving to the Devon countryside and establishing a sham marriage to protect his pregnant unmarried 15-year-old sister, Maud. Just as Andrew Easton is undone by love, John Goodwin becomes infatuated with a beautiful but dangerous hustler who torments him for what remains of his unhappy life. Exercising her discreet skills of misdirection, Rendell keeps so tight a focus on John's suffering that we're scarcely aware of what havoc social deprivation has wreaked on Maud. After years of living a secret life, she emerges as "the kind of woman common in their family, narrow, censorious, quick to pass judgment," the same kind of disapproving person, in other words, who drove her and her brother from the family home. In Rendell's chilling view, what goes around comes around, and the injustices of one age are bound to have horrid repercussions, even in supposedly enlightened societies like our own. Not to be crass, but Ed Kovacs owes a lot to Hurricane Katrina. Picking up from his novel "Storm Damage," GOOD JUNK (Minotaur, $25.99) finds the fractured city of New Orleans struggling to put itself back together a year after the storm. Cliff St. James, who plays the smart-aleck private eye in these stories, feels terrible because he has killed a man during a sparring session in a fight cage. But it's hard to feel the pain of a noir action hero who might have emerged from a toy box. Not only does this guy have a history as a cop, he's also a martial-arts expert and the "cuddle-buddy" of a homicide detective named Honey Baybee, who implausibly manages to get St. James assigned to a murder investigation as a freelance investigator. But if the characters are animated dolls and the plot about the theft of futuristic weapons being designed at a local military facility is less than credible, the scenes of New Orleans are rich and real. Kovacs's hopeless, elegiac vision of the city is touching, and his quick studies of hidden landmarks like the outré bar in the French Quarter that calls itself Pravda, and Pampy's, a purveyor of soul food to politicians, are written with true affection and terrific humor. In NOT DEAD YET (Minotaur, $25.99), Peter James smartly captures the giddy insanity that descends on the English seaside resort of Brighton when it's invaded by a film company bringing home a local girl, Gaia Lafayette, who went off to Hollywood and was transformed into a flamboyant rock star diva. But when Gaia returns to Brighton, two scary people are waiting: a disgruntled screenwriter with murder on his mind and an unstable fan who could kill her with love. James really knows how to plot a procedural thriller, and he enjoys a sly joke, like casting Gaia as Mother Teresa in a West End musical called "Sainted!" But his droll wit deserts him when it comes to the Hollywood natives, caricatured in an overblown style that's wildly at odds with the earnest manner of his series's sleuth, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. Although, come to think of it, Grace is so batty about the prospect of becoming a father that he too seems to have gone off the edge. Aside from the castle of your father, the king, the safest place for a woman in the Middle Ages was a well-run religious institution like the one that figures in Priscilla Royal's enthralling medieval mysteries. Tyndal Priory has long thrived under the progressive policies of the aristocratic Eleanor, so there's no accounting for the murder and mayhem that seem to plague this holy retreat - except for the opportunity they offer for Royal's insights into the upheavals of the period. The vividly drawn characters in THE SANCTITY OF HATE (Poisoned Pen, cloth, $24.95; paper, $14.95) enlighten us on many details of monastic life. But it's the harrowing scene of a Jewish woman suffering the agonies of a difficult childbirth while a howling mob threatens violence that sums up Royal's two dark themes: the lowly status and cruel treatment of women, and the persecution of England's Jewish population. Whatever you think Ruth Rendell is up to, especially when she's writing as Barbara Vine - that's not it.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [December 23, 2012]
Review by Booklist Review
Rock star, actress, and international media sensation Gaia Lafayette (a little bit Madonna, a little bit Lady Gaga) is coming to Brighton, England, to film a movie that is supposed to rival The King's Speech. The in-production film, The King's Lover, puts Gaia in the plum role of the mistress of King George IV. Lots of buzz for the film and lots of danger for Gaia as her unhinged fans prepare to stalk her in Brighton. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of the Brighton constabulary (this is his seventh appearance in the Grace series) coordinates with Gaia's security to ward off disaster. But even before Gaia arrives, the dismembered body of an avid collector of Gaia memorabilia is discovered in a Brighton chicken coop. Growing evidence points to a self-styled Number One Fan targeting Gaia. The procedure is engrossing, and the Brighton setting wonderfully detailed, but the writing, with its too-quick shifts of point of view and combination of sensationalism and treacly romance, is hard to take in such a large dose, more than 400 pages. For dedicated series fans.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Two cases preoccupy Roy Grace in James's unnecessarily complicated eighth crime novel featuring the Brighton detective superintendent (after 2011's Dead Man's Grip). When a torso turns up in a vat of chicken excrement at a Sussex farm, Grace and his team know that the most important thing is to identify the victim, which proves difficult. Meanwhile, Grace eagerly awaits the birth of his first child (by his fiancee), though the memory of his first wife, who disappeared nearly a decade earlier, dampens his enthusiasm for fatherhood at times. Grace must also oversee the protection of pop superstar Gaia, who's in Brighton to film her first serious movie, the story of George IV's relationship with his secret mistress. That so many people wish the Lady GaGa-esque Gaia harm-including an obsessed Internet fan, whose love turns to rage when her idol ignores her-may strike some readers as implausible. Several side stories serve to confuse the main action. Agent: Carole Blake, Blake Friedmann Literary. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Hollywood comes to Brighton in James's eighth thriller with DS Roy Grace at the helm (after his Barry Award-winning Dead Man's Grip). [See Prepub Alert, 7/2/12.] (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The return of a Brighton girl who made it big spells nothing but trouble for Detective Superintendent Roy Grace and his colleagues in the Sussex Police (Dead Man's Grip, 2011, etc.). Now that she's returned to her birthplace to star as George IV's mistress in The King's Lover, everyone, it seems, wants a piece of rocker-turned-thespian Gaia Lafayette. An anonymous sender of emails who thinks the role should have gone to a more established actress has already shot Gaia's assistant to death in LA. Failed playwright Drayton Wheeler, convinced that producer Larry Brooker stole the film's idea from him, is plotting revenge. So is Anna Galicia, the fan who's spent 275,000 on Gaia memorabilia only to be spurned when she tried to talk herself into a face-to-face with her idol. Kevin Spinella, chief crime reporter for the Brighton Argus, demands details on the latest threats to Gaia even though he's on his honeymoon in the Maldives. Clearly, protecting a superstar who doesn't want to surrender her freedom of movement in a nation where practically no one, including the police, carries firearms will be a tall order for the Sussex Police. Roy Grace, who's in charge of the detail, has troubles of his own. An unidentifiable torso has turned up on Keith Winter's chicken farm, and vicious gangster Amis Smallbone, whom Grace put away 12 years ago, has been released from prison bent on vengeance. And that doesn't even exhaust the list of miscreants, who are so thick on the ground that there's even a darkly humorous scene in which two of Gaia's stalkers, unknown to each other, briefly meet James keeps the whole caravan lumbering efficiently along, though he never quite dispels the suspicion that not even a rock star could possibly have so many enemies independently determined to do her harm.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
