Review by New York Times Review
BY 1950, some members of the Atlanta Ku Klux Klan think their raids have deteriorated into pathetic spectacles. "Jumping out of a parked car in a gravel lot hardly had the same grandeur as tearing across a field astride stallions, a fiery torch in one hand and a pistol in the other," complains Dale Simpkins, an avid racist who participates in one such humiliating fiasco in Thomas Mullen's LIGHTNING MEN (37lnk/ Atria, $26). Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith, two of the token black cops on the police force, are already run ragged trying to contain other crimes, like the violent turf wars between gangs fighting over the lucrative "reefer and shine" market. But with racial barriers slowly going down, officers are increasingly needed in middleclass neighborhoods like Hanford Park, where white residents are literally up in arms over the black families buying homes on their blocks. Black vs. White doesn't begin to cover the complexity of the diverse relationships in this sharply observed novel. As the son of a Baptist minister who's friendly with notables like Thurgood Marshall, Boggs is a member of the black aristocracy, a beneficiary of "preacher money and a preacher house, even a preacher car." But when he learns that his fiancee has lied about her ex-husband, covering up his prison record, the pious preacher's son begins to wonder whether the social gulf between them is too great. At the same time, one of Boggs's more open-minded white colleagues, Denny Rakestraw, is caught in a dangerous quandary when he discovers that his wife has been keeping a record of "Negro sightings" in the area and collecting money from neighbors to buy out the newcomers. Other homeowners might be more inclined, as is Rake's goodfor-nothing brother-in-law, to pull on their white hoods and attend a meeting of the local Klan klavern in the basement of the Congregational church. It might not be a full Klonkave, with Klansmen from all over Georgia, but the purple-garbed Grand Wizard himself is present at the sacred altar. So there's a good chance his colorful presence will inspire some violent theatrics. SHARYN MCCRUMB is singing another bittersweet mountain ballad in THE UNQUIET GRAVE (Atria, $26). Set in the author's West Virginia "homeplace," the story reaches back to Greenbrier County in 1896, when Zona Heaster, "a pert little thing" who "needed watching," becomes pregnant by George Woolridge, a man "good for making babies, and not for any other earthly thing." Zona's mother, Mary Jane, is the story's plain-spoken narrator. And she has a bad feeling about her daughter's choice of a makedo husband, a beefy blacksmith named Trout Shue, who thinks he's getting himself a work horse and is none too pleased with his delicate bride. Mary Jane's sense of foreboding becomes outright suspicion when Zona dies in a fall only six months into the marriage. And her conviction that Zona has been murdered is confirmed when her daughter's ghost appears, turning her head "all the way around to prove to me that her neck was broken." This is vintage yarn-spinning. McCrumb hears voices from the grave and kindly passes their messages along. CHEERS TO SHARON BOLTON for the clever opening scene in DEAD WOMAN WALKING (Minotaur, $25.99), which takes place in a hot-air balloon flying over the moorlands of England's far north. The 13 passengers who had been enjoying the view are startled to look down and see a man in a leather jacket bashing a woman to death with a rock. Caught in the act, the killer reaches for a rifle and starts picking off his observers. Despite the bodies falling left and right, Jessica Lane, who went up with her sister, a Carmelite nun celebrating her 40th birthday, manages to survive - only to become the murderer's new target. Despite an overstuffed plot that veers into the illegal harvesting of human organs, this bad hombre takes readers on quite a chase. SHARLAN COBEN is a folk poet of the suburbs and his well-tuned new mystery, DON'T LET GO (Dutton, $28), shows why. The plot reaches back to the 1950s, when the nice little town of Westbridge, like so many other nice little towns all across America, had its very own Nike missile base. The Conspiracy Club, a grandly named "secret society" organized by a group of high school friends in the late 1990 s, was obsessed with the installation and why it was shut down in 1974. Years later, some members of the club are still obsessed with the missile base, which they suspect was the scene of government experiments involving LSD. Coben does his usual professional job on the central mystery, which involves the violent deaths of a detective's brother and the brother's girlfriend, but his greater talent lies in his warmhearted descriptions of life in places like Westbridge. Standing by the basketball courts in front of the high school, the detective, who also serves as the narrator, meditates on "the sweet echo of a ball against asphalt at twilight" and this "thing of beauty called 'pickup basketball.' " That kind of writing is what we call poetry, and it falls on the ear like the sounds of summer. MARILYN STASIO has covered crime fiction for the Book Review since 1988. Her column appears twice a month.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [September 17, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
While floating above Northumberland National Park in a hot-air balloon, sisters Jessica and Isabelle Lane spot a woman fleeing from the ruins of a medieval home. As they watch, a man chases the woman down, eventually subduing her with blow to the head. Realizing that the floating tourists are filming the attack, the man fires at the balloon, causing a crash that only Jessica survives. She hides in a tree, barely conscious, as their attacker hunts for surviving witnesses. But Jessica refuses to become another victim and evades the killer, who remains on her trail. Determined to destroy her sister's murderer, Jessica turns the hunt on its end, relying on both her training as an undercover cop and the nuns from her sister's convent to lure the killer into a trap. Although the final twist feels a bit convenient, the Reacher-like thrills leading there generate adrenaline-fueled pleasure. Bolton, who also writes as S. J. Bolton, delivers another strong, resourceful female character in Jessica Lane.--Tran, Christine Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Jessica Lane, the heroine of this hit-or-miss thriller from Mary Higgins Clark Award-winner Bolton (Daisy in Chains), plans a birthday surprise for her sister, a Carmelite nun-a balloon ride over England's Northumberland National Park. But as the balloon floats over a dilapidated farm house, Jessica and the other passengers see a man, later identified as Patrick Faa, beating a woman to death. Faa fires a rifle at the balloon, causing it to crash; Jessica is the only survivor. Bolton shifts-sometimes smoothly but too often in the middle of a scene-among the police investigation, led by Supt. Ajax Maldonado; Jessica's attempt to evade Faa; the prior, sometimes prickly, relationship between the sisters; and a larger, somewhat more far-fetched story involving human trafficking and a massive cover-up. Maldonado and his team soon discover Jessica is a fellow police officer, but they're stumped as to why she's now on the run, a question the reader shares for too long. Despite some emotional resonance, Bolton's plot is too cluttered for any real impact. Agent: Anne-Marie Doulton, Ampersand Agency (U.K.). (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Bolton's (Little Black Lies) latest stand-alone hits the ground running-so to speak-with a terrifying hot-air balloon crash. The passengers witness a murder from the air, and the perpetrator stalks the balloon from a motorbike; eventually, all but one of the passengers are dead. The survivor manages to evade the killer, but he knows she's alive and sets out to find her. Interwoven with the tense hunt are numerous other threads: a family that runs a human trafficking ring from their heavily fortified compound; the police officer investigating the balloon crash, who has his own complicated connections to the case; and the backstory of the surviving woman and her late sister. The pace is propulsive, the plotting is twisty, and readers will tear through the book as the tension ratchets up. That said, some readers may find that the reveal in the final pages defies credibility and wraps things up a bit too neatly. VERDICT This will be the book of the fall for Bolton's fans and anyone who treasures the experience of staying up late reading just to find out what happens next. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/17.]-Stephanie Klose, Library Journal © Copyright 2017. 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 lone survivor of a balloon crash flees from a heartless killer bent on silencing her.When Patrick Faa dispatches his victims, he likes a nice, quiet place. The rural north of England, near the Scottish border, would seem perfect. Who'd have thought that a hot air balloon, carrying 12 passengers and experienced pilot Sean Allan, would drift across the sky just as Patrick was bashing his latest quarry with a rock? Patrick feels he has no choice but to bring the balloon down with a shot to the pilot's head. He finishes off the passengers who survive the impact of the crash by breaking their necks, betting that the injuries he inflicts will be masked by those sustained in the crash. But he misses one. The police, when they finally arrive on the scene of what looks like a tragic accident, find the bodies of all the passengers except Jessica Lane, who arranged the balloon ride as a treat for her sister's 40th birthdaya rare treat since, as a member of the Carmelite order housed at Wynding Priory, Isabel Jones hasn't left the convent since she became Sister Maria Magdalena at age 18. Superintendent Ajax Maldonado is frantic to find the lone survivor, who's now wandering dazed through Northumberland National Park, in large part because she's the only one who can tell the police exactly how the crash occurred. But Patrick is just as eager to find her for exactly the same reason. Criminal, policeman, victim: Bolton plays the three sides of her triangle deftly against the middle, delving into their pasts and presents but hinting at a future readers can only guess at. Less of a shock to the system than Daisy in Chains (2016) but still guaranteed to provide its share of chills. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
