Review_FICTION
56 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ APRIL 6, 2020
Review_FICTION
Lithuanian that translates as “The dead
cannot speak”; a card that may be a driver’s
license identifies him as Lukas Balsys, a
Lithuanian immigrant. Bradshaw and
her partner, Det. Sgt. Davy Walker,
investigate what they suspect is a murder
made to look like a suicide. Flashbacks
show Lukas and other Lithuanians lured
by promises of work to England, where a
fellow Lithuanian, Eidikus, soon has
them catching chickens in a filthy ware-
house and living in toxic houses with
bedbug-ridden mattresses on the floor.
Two other men are hanged, and another
dies in the warehouse. Some humor and
the loving exchanges between Bradshaw
and her husband provide relief from the
grim crimes, but the plot meanders.
Steiner has done better. Agent: Eleanor
Jackson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (June)★ The Last Flight
Julie Clark. Sourcebooks, $26.99 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-7282-1572-3
In this outstanding thriller from Clark
(The Ones We Choose), New York socialite
Clair Cook, who has a plan to run away
from her emotionally and physically
abusive husband, and Eva James, a
woman heading home to Berkeley, Calif.,
who says she’s mourning her late husband,
meet by chance at an airport bar at JFK
before their flights. Claire tells Eva that
she would do
anything not to
go to Puerto
Rico, where her
husband is
expecting her.
Eva agrees to fly
to Puerto Rico
in Claire’s place,
and the two
swap e-tickets
and phones. On
arrival at Oakland’s airport, Claire learns
that the Puerto Rico flight has crashed,
killing everyone aboard. Though she’s
devastated that Eva has died in the crash,
Claire takes the opportunity to assume
the life Eva left behind only to discover
that Eva was not who she said she was and
was fleeing her own dangerous past. The
moral dilemmas that the multifaceted,
realistic characters face in their quest for
survival lend weight to this pulse-pounding
tale of suspense. Clark is definitely anear future in which a female doctor is
arrested for treating undocumented
immigrants, feels only too possible,
while “Trial by Fire,” set on the Kansas
plains during Prohibition, starkly por-
trays a grim reality of America’s past.
The love that really comes through in
each story is the love and empathy
Paretsky has for her all-too-human char-
acters. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick
Abel Literary. (June)Safe
S.K. Barnett. Dutton, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-1-
5247-4652-0
Twelve years after six-year-old Jenny
Kristal disappeared on her way to play
with a friend in suburban Long Island,
N.Y., she returns home—or does she?
Whether the scrawny teen who nearly
collapses near her old house is truly
Jenny or an imposter propels this dis-
turbing psychological thriller from the
pseudonymous Barnett. Tearful mom
Laurie welcomes the newcomer uncondi-
tionally, dad Jake seems oddly distant,
and 20-year-old brother Ben is openly
suspicious. And if things weren’t already
sufficiently tense, an anonymous new
Facebook friend warns Jenny she’s “not
safe in that house.” Barnett skillfully
maintains the central mystery as long as
possible, intercutting the young woman’s
efforts to investigate what actually hap-
pened that fateful day with flashbacks to
the horrific abuse she suffered for years at
the hands of the meth-dealing Midwestern
couple she was forced to call Father and
Mother. Up until the jolting last-minute
twists that lead to a somewhat clichéd
conclusion, this makes for involving if
unsettling reading. Genre fans will want
to see more from this talented author.
Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management.
(June)Remain Silent:
A Manon Bradshaw Novel
Susie Steiner. Random House, $27 (320p)
ISBN 978-0-525-50997-4
At the start of Steiner’s sluggish third
novel featuring Det. Insp. Manon Bradshaw
(after 2018’s Persons Unknown), Bradshaw,
an officer on the Cambridgeshire, England,
police force, discovers the body of a young
man hanging from a tree in the park.
Pinned to the victim’s trousers is a note inrecently retired ballet dancer, and her
family—husband Shaw and two young
children—move from a New York City
apartment to an old house on six acres
deep in the Adirondacks. Shortly after
their arrival, Orla and the children have
deep misgivings about the secluded place,
which seems to be home to a supernatural
presence. But Shaw, an aspiring artist
who grew up in the North Country, was
drawn to the property—especially the
towering, centuries-old pine tree behind
the house—and advises Orla and the kids
to disregard the increasingly strange
occurrences (like 10 feet of snow falling
overnight), all of which seem to be aimed
at keeping the family on the property.
Though Stage’s darkly lyrical writing
style shines in places—particularly in
creating memorable imagery—it can’t
save a derivative story with a conspicuous
lack of overall emotional intensity. This
is disturbing for all the wrong reasons.
Agent: Stephen Barbara, Inkwell
Management. (June)Love & Other Crimes: Stories
Sara Paretsky. Morrow, $17.99 trade paper
(448p) ISBN 978-0-06-291554-2
The 14 stories in this welcome collec-
tion from MWA Grand Master Paretsky
(the V.I. Warshawksi PI series) are loosely
tied together by the theme of people
who kill for love in all its permutations:
a sister for her brother, a child for her
father, a son for the mother he never
knew. Classic mystery detectives appear in
two delightful
homages: “The
Curious Affair
of the Italian
Art Dealer,”
which involves
Sherlock
Holmes, and
“Murder at the
Century of
Progress,” set
at the 1933–
1934 Chicago World’s Fair, which
includes a Miss Marple-like sleuth. Two
standout tales set during the Vietnam
War era are “Miss Bianca,” a touching
story of a little girl’s love for a laboratory
mouse, and “Wildcat,” a child’s-eye view
of the 1966 Chicago race riots. “Safety
First,” a terrifying story set in a dystopian