Latest Reviews
Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn’t? Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.
The whole country has been riveted by the trial: Beloved TV star and national treasure Anna Finbow, standing in court, accusing her daughter’s therapist, Jean Guest, of brainwashing her daughter, Mary, for her own financial gain. Jean insists that Mary’s traumatic memories arise from her upbringing and her time studying at a prestigious art school in Rome --- wounds only Jean’s therapy can heal. But as the trial unfolds, it’s Augusta “Gus” Bird, Anna’s former employee --- a seemingly insignificant bystander, a nobody --- who holds the key to unraveling the tangled web of lies and deceit. What really happened to Mary in Rome? And if her memories can’t be trusted, how will they ever uncover the truth behind her estrangement?
Shadow --- the head of Treadstone --- has found evidence of massive Chinese espionage activity in the U.S. The spy running the operations is a shadowy American known only by the codename Bai Ze. No one knows who he is, but when Shadow consults the Files --- the hacked AI database she stole from the Chinese --- she discovers that Jason Bourne encountered Bai Ze during an operation eight years earlier. The trouble is, Bourne doesn’t remember him. As Bourne hunts for the elusive spy, he meets a reporter named Laney Reese, who shares his strange affliction: eight years ago, Laney lost her entire memory, too. Bourne is convinced that whatever happened to both of them is at the heart of the Chinese espionage operation. With Laney at his side, Bourne follows a zigzagging trail of clues to a quirky billionaire and his ex-wife, both of whom may have ties to Bai Ze.
Actress Anna Vaughn is fearless --- on screen, at least. She likes to believe she is as tough as her characters, but off-camera she leads a far quieter life. When her best friend Natalie, her rock, disappears after a night out with a mysterious new man, the signs point to foul play and a circle of spies operating in Manhattan. Anna must use all the tricks she’s learned for her roles to hunt for her missing friend. She crosses paths with Kevin Matthews, an FBI agent on the same trail, tracking a string of killings and disappearances and a powerful clique of oligarchs. With Matthews as her handler, she has only days to prepare for the greatest performance of her life --- going undercover. As the killers close in, her only chance for survival is to become as lethal as the characters she once played.
The brutal murder of Elizabeth Short --- better known as the Black Dahlia --- in 1947 has been in the public consciousness for nearly 80 years, yet no serious study of the crime has ever been published. Short has been mischaracterized as a wayward sex worker or vagabond, and --- like the seductive femme fatales of film noir --- responsible for and perhaps deserving of her fate. William J. Mann, however, is interested in the truth. His extensive research reveals her as a young woman with curiosity and drive, who leveraged what little agency postwar society gave her to explore the world, defying draconian postwar gender expectations to settle down, marry and have children. It’s time to reexamine the woman who became known as the Black Dahlia.
Christine is on tour for her novel, a revenge fantasy based on a real-life relationship gone bad with an older professor 10 years prior. Now on the road, she’s seeking answers --- about how to live a good life and what it means to make art --- through intimate conversations with strangers, past lovers and friends. But when the antagonist of her novel --- her old painting professor --- reaches out in a series of sly communiques after years of silence to tell her that he’s read her book, Christine must reckon with what it means to lose the reins of a narrative she wrote precisely to maintain control. When her professor invites her to join him at his house, on a remote island off the coast of Maine, their encounter threatens to change the very foundations of her life as she’s imagined it.
Curt Hinton and Angel Reddish are former college roommates turned lifelong best friends who always have each other’s backs. So when Angel offers Curt the chance to leave his job at a failing newspaper and take a lucrative position as head of corporate communications at Balco, the Bay Area Logistics Company, Curt takes the leap. But on Curt’s first day at Balco, he learns that Angel was killed the night before during a carjacking. Tasked with writing a press release about the crime, Curt quickly discovers that the carjacking wasn’t random --- it was a targeted attack by professional killers. As Curt is drawn into the mystery of his best friend’s death, he discovers that there are many possible suspects --- and there’s a lot more danger swirling around his new employer than he ever could have imagined.
Cynthia Burrows thought she'd built the perfect life --- successful law career, loving husband, beautiful daughter. But when 18-year-old Tori vanishes without a trace, Cynthia's carefully constructed world begins to crumble. The school says Tori was excused by family. Security footage shows her leaving with an older man. And the boy she was supposed to date? His name sends chills down Cynthia's spine --- Alexander Beaufort. That's impossible. Alexander Beaufort is the serial killer who destroyed Cynthia's childhood, murdered her best friend, and forced her into witness protection 20 years ago. He's supposed to be locked away forever. But someone is playing a deadly game, leaving clues that drag Cynthia back to her darkest memories. With only three days to find her daughter, she must confront the monster from her past and the shocking secrets Tori has been hiding.
A. is an amateur translator. Adrift and burdened by debt following a medical trauma, she makes rent caring for a young boy who is not and could never be her own. Her nights are spent on the dance floor, chasing spontaneous connection. There, she encounters N., who shares her numbed state and sometimes her bed. Among N.’s meager possessions, A. comes across a slim book about an unnamed foreign town of disappearing boys. The book, Field Notes, documents the stories of a community of mothers who assemble to mourn their missing sons together. When a near-assault stuns A. out of her inertia, she takes off for the city where Field Notes was written in search of its author and the end of the story. But A.’s digging leads her instead to the traces of a murdered poet, a mysterious woman whose legacy will intersect unexpectedly and pivotally with A.’s own life.
Heavily pregnant with her second child, Tessa Irons has enough on her mind without her toddler throwing tantrums at the local coffee shop. The boy is inconsolable, shouting “Gigi!” to a woman Tessa has never seen before --- and never will again. The next morning, the woman’s body is dredged up from the canal outside the Ironses’ posh Venice Beach home, and Tessa’s gut tells her it’s no coincidence. Barb Geller refuses to believe that her daughter’s death was just some drunken accident. She heads to California for answers, where she crosses paths with Tessa. Together they hunt for the truth, certain they’ll find a connection between their children. But the police don’t believe them. Tessa and Barb only have each other, their intuition, and the creeping sense of danger that grows with every shocking revelation.
