Emotional Thriller, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS by Lisa Scottoline

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Scottoline’s flawless plot twists create a bond with this scrambling, desperate dad in his new-found courage and hastily recruited allies.”

Lisa Scottoline’s thrillers are always tight, taut page-turners, packed with action and risk and suspense. In What Happened to the Bennetts, she crafts fresh intensity because of the powerful emotions at stake, reassembling like kaleidoscope pieces with every fresh scene.

The opening chapter presents a parent’s nightmare: Jason Bennett, a court reporter with a specialty in lip reading, is headed home with his wife and two kids in the family car after his daughter Allison’s lacrosse game. When a truck begins to tailgate them, he’s ready to pull over and get out of the way. Instead, a couple of men attempt to carjack them, and of course Jason yields—anything to keep his family safe!

But instead, despite the family’s scramble out of the car, one of the criminals fires at them, a shot that will be fatal Jason’s daughter. Before the Bennetts even have a chance to face what’s just happen, FBI agents scoop them up, convinced that the criminals are part of a dangerous gang of drug traffickers. And for the rest of the Bennetts to survive, they’ve got to enter witness protection. Right. Now.

Special Agent Kingston pounds the urgency into them: “A carjacking usually occurs for one of three reasons. Number one, the car is stolen to flee the scene of a crime. Number two, the car is stolen because it’s a specific make, as part of an auto theft ring. Number three, the victim is in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

In this case, the FBI concludes, is option number one. Except that since one of the criminals killed the other during the attempt, there’s going to be a lie circulated that Jason Bennett shot the second criminal, and in a gang like this one, revenge will already be in motion.

So that’s enough pressure to put the family into hiding in a rural back woods, with protection. But WITSEC doesn’t have what they need to process Allison’s death (they can’t even be at her funeral!) or deal with rumors circulating about them (Jason’s wife was having an affair, Jason is killing anyone involved). Let alone the emotional distress of Allison’s younger brother, who’s blaming himself and spiraling down rapidly.

It’s Jason’s point of view that carries the book, and his self-blame, as the dad who should have been able to protect his daughter, is enormous. He could spiral down, too—but he’s already shown his courage and devotion in many small ways, so when he takes things into his own hands, determined to confront the criminal gang and somehow get his remaining family members out of this nightmare purgatory, he’s acting from love and determination. And his suspicions soar sky high when he puts together his wife’s nearly accidental affair with the law team for the criminal consortium. She hadn’t even realized this … and now, Jason finds, “I couldn’t say another word. I couldn’t stay in the room with her.” Because it’s starting to look like there’s been nothing accidental in all of this, but the FBI isn’t “getting it,” and it’s up to Jason to find a way.

“I had to get back and tell Dom [an FBI agent] everything. My family wouldn’t be safe outside the program until the conspiracy had been exposed.”

Nothing’s really prepared Jason Bennett for this kind of mission. But he has the most powerful possible reasons for pursuing it. And Scottoline’s flawless plot twists create a bond with this scrambling, desperate dad in his new-found courage and hastily recruited allies.

Clear the calendar before you start reading; What Happened to the Bennetts is so good, you may not want to put it down until the hard-won and well-earned finale.

 PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

DNA Matching Can Be Thrilling—THE MATCH by Harlan Coben Shows Why

The March 2022 release from Harlan Coben, THE MATCH, is a taut and fast-paced thriller charged with dangers and dark deeds -- and underlaid with honest affection and a craving for justice.

That makes it one of the best mysteries of the year so far, worth buying, reading, then waiting a bit and re-reading, because it holds up so well in terms of human value.

THE MATCH begins as a sequel to The Boy From the Woods. Wilde (his only name) survived as an abandoned small child in the woods north of the New Jersey suburbs. In the earlier title, his survival skills assist TV lawyer Heather Crimstein in finding, and finding justice for, a missing girl.

There's no need to read The Boy From the Woods before THE MATCH, though. Wilde's strong bond and interdependence with Heather come through clearly from the start, along with his loyalty and love toward others in Heather's family. And he is understandably determined, at this point in his adult life (post military service), to discover his own roots if he can.

Wilde's submission of his DNA to the online databases, however, opens a door to life-threatening danger. The man identified as his father by the database claims a long-forgotten one-night stand; the man pinpointed as Wilde's cousin may have committed suicide; his other presumed cousins cover a range of misleading to nasty. And in opening the gate toward what may have resulted in his being abandoned, Wilde crosses paths with a powerful faction that doesn't shrink from abuse and murder.

Threaded through the book are tech surprises ranging from password tricks to vicious vigilantes, classic material for Coben, whose thrillers skate along the edges of military secrets, surveillance, and stalking. But when real danger crowds up against Wilde and the people he cares about, it comes from a significant betrayal that could cost him ... everything.

Highly recommended. And if you are new to Coben, the surprises he provides about both New Jersey and cybercrime will add to the delight of discovery. 

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

THE LIGHTNING ROD, Fresh Light Suspense from Brad Meltzer

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“The Lightning Rod will suit readers of James Patterson, Stuart Woods, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and John Gilstrap. Don’t look for character growth or deep revelation about how government and military operate—stick with light thriller expectations, and The Lightning Rod will provide rapid-paced entertainment.”

The Lightning Rod is the second in Brad Meltzer’s new thriller series that features “Zig and Nola”—where Zig, Jim Zigarowski, is a mortician but no longer working for the government, and Nola is a government-contracted artist. And, incidentally, a dangerous and damaged person with limited interpersonal skills.

That would be enough on its own to establish peril and risk. Add in the slain Lieutenant Colonel Archie Mint and his colleagues, and the chase scenes feel like a packed party favor, aching to explode.

Mint’s family appears to have no idea the officer had a second military assignment, working at Dover Air Force Base, which for Zig has been home base also: “home of the mortuary for the U.S. government’s most high-profile and top secret cases.” It only takes Zig a few minutes of attempting to restore the corpse’s facial makeup to realize there are some very peculiar things going on. In fact, being called into the mortuary work for this funeral is peculiar in itself.

When Zig discovers that the unpredictable and ferocious Nola—who is also an orphan who’s suffered in the foster system—documented in her drawings this murdered officer and two others, one of whom is already dead, he realizes there are no coincidences here. Only deliberate hunting and shooting, not to mention cutting of throats, when the hired help of the dark net get involved.

Most difficult to manage is the entanglement one of Nola’s family members (and Zig is astounded to find that she had one), Roddy LaPointe. Roddy brings more potential explosions, but also some clarity:

“’From what I could find, all three were in the same unit,’ Roddy explained, swiping back to the painting [done by Nola] and enlarging the photo to enhance the logo on Mint’s jacket. A hand grabbing two lightning bolts. Semper Vigiles.

‘Army Security Agency,’ Roddy explained, again checking over his shoulder. This time the street was quiet. ‘Dates back to World War II, when they did high-end investigative work—top secret and above—stuff they didn’t even trust to the Army intel folks.’”

As Zig and his collaborators dig into what the investigators had uncovered, he finds many who are determined to keep the facts buried. If it weren’t for the way Nola is coming apart at the seams, and her dangerous brother, Zig might back out—especially because his ex-wife is tugging him toward a very different investigation.

The action and entangled threads make this a page-turner, with big doses of both military weaponry and tech complications. Meltzer’s habit of very short chapters and many points of view does chop the flow, and there are multiple flaws in “continuity” among the rapid scenes. Red herrings and McGuffins abound, too. So read this one as quickly as you can, surfing the classic thriller ambience and not asking too many deep questions.

The Lightning Rod will suit readers of James Patterson, Stuart Woods, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and John Gilstrap. Don’t look for character growth or deep revelation about how government and military operate—stick with light thriller expectations, and The Lightning Rod will provide rapid-paced entertainment.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Lively Contemporary Mystery from Amanda Flower, PUT OUT TO PASTURE

Spring's delights can also mean long days, adding gardening and strolling (maybe even without a mask, at last!) to the regular work week. So a really well-written cozy mystery is a gift to yourself -- and PUT OUT TO PASTURE by Amanda Flower (Poisoned Pen Press) fits perfectly.

This is Flower's second in her Farm to Table mysteries, and opens, of course, with a death. It's one of the significant community members attending the opening festival at Shiloh Bellamy's organic family farm. Despite the immediate disaster of a murder at a public event, Shiloh might have seen this one coming, since she'd only just commented to herself, "If anyone could make good on a promise to make another person's life miserable it was Minnie Devani."

When Minnie's death looks connected to a very public argument with Shiloh's best friend Kristy, and Shiloh's own family structure is threatened as well, it makes perfect sense for her to team up with the local investigation. Especially satisfying in this "cozy" are Shiloh's intelligence and sensible decisions -- a refreshing change from cozy protagonists who stumble from one mistake to the next. Shiloh's also good at speaking up for herself, and pushing past unpleasant people. When she can, she sorts things out with Kristy:

"I wonder who else knew Minnie well? There has to be someone in Cherry Glen who knew who Minnie was. If there wasn't ..."

"If there wasn't what?"

[Kristy] sighed. "If there wasn't, that's incredibly sad. Can you imagine living your whole adult life in a lie? I couldn't love like that. How can you go through life not being known for who you really are?"

I was far less the social butterfly than Kristy was, but I felt the same way. I wouldn't have been able to keep up the lie as well as Minnie had, or I didn't think I could. However, [...] not going to prison would be a pretty good motivation to keep my mouth shut. It clearly had been for Minnie.

Neatly plotted, smartly written, PUT OUT TO PASTURE is a great light mystery to relax with, whether your season includes digging a new vegetable bed or overhauling your wardrobe or saving the world (why not all three?). One small disappointment: no recipes at the end. But hey, you've got other books and websites for those, right? Although you don't need to read the first book in the series, Farm to Trouble, to enjoy this one, it might be nice to grab a copy for later in your own flowering season.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.