Review by New York Times Review
WHEN A character in a crime novel snaps and kills a child, it's usually a mother stressed beyond endurance. In Leila Slimani's unnerving cautionary tale, THE PERFECT NANNY (Penguin, paper, $16), subtly translated by Sam Taylor, we know from the outset that it's a beloved and trusted nanny who murders the two children in her care. That's pretty radical for a domestic thriller; but what's more remarkable about this unconventional novel (which was awarded France's prestigious Prix Goncourt) is the author's intimate analysis of the special relationship between a mother and a nanny. Myriam and Paul, the Parisian couple who hire Louise to help care for their son and daughter, are delighted to discover that she's "a miracle worker" who cleans, reorganizes the household and even cooks delicious meals. "Nothing rots, nothing expires" in Louise's kitchen. At first, they bask in their unexpected comfort, "like spoiled children, like purring cats." Much too late, Myriam realizes that the new nanny may not be entirely benevolent: "She is Vishnu, the nurturing divinity, jealous and protective." But already Louise "has embedded herself so deeply in their lives that it now seems impossible to remove her." Despite Myriam's fears, Louise has no intention of replacing her as the woman of the house; rather, in her pathological loneliness, the nanny increasingly fantasizes that she has become a de facto member of the family. Slimani writes devastatingly perceptive character studies. Dropping their children at day care, the mothers are "rushed and sad," the children "little tyrants." She also raises painful questions. Could Myriam be projecting onto her nanny her own forbidden desire to be free of her children and their insatiable needs? ("They're eating me alive," she thinks.) Is there an element of racial prejudice in the Moroccanborn Myriam's attitude toward her French nanny? Is Louise's pitiless act the transference of her forbidden feelings about her privileged employer? One thing is clear: Loneliness can drive you crazy, and extreme loneliness can make you homicidal. THE INTENSE thrills of Thomas Perry's THE BOMB MAKER (Mysterious Press, $26) are almost unbearable. After sweating through a scene in which a member of the Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Squad narrowly escapes a lethal explosion, we're knocked back by the loss of 14 team technicians - half the squad - who are blown to smithereens. "Bombs were acts of murder," Perry writes, but "they were also jokes on you, riddles the bomber hoped were too tough for you." Dick Stahl, who steps in to head the depleted squad, doesn't get the joke, but he goes mano a mano with the abominable riddler, whose clear intention is to destroy those who respond to his devilishly clever booby traps. There seems to be no pattern to the placement of these "welldesigned, insidious and psychologically astute" devices, which turn up at a gas station, a school cafeteria and a hospital ward. Before they go off, the tension is killing. And when they do, the damage is spectacular. DRIVING UP AND DOWN Utah's desolate Route 117 with the trucker Ben Jones is an education. LULLABY ROAD (Crown, $26), James Anderson's second novel (after "The Never-Open Desert Diner"), introduces us to more of the "desert rats, hardscrabble ranchers and other assorted exiles" who choose to live off the grid and depend on Ben's Desert Moon Delivery Service for food and water and the occasional luxury, like soap. Some of Ben's customers are deep thinkers like Roy Cuthbert, who suggests holding Second Amendment Days ("with a huge gun show and fast-draw competition") to save the town of Rockmuse from sinking into the desert sands. Other, more desperate people, like Pedro, the tire man at the Stop 'n' Gone Truck Stop, trust him to transport a small child and a large dog in his 28-foot tractortrailer rig. Ben is nothing if not a decent man, and Anderson rewards him with a deadly adventure and the most poetic prose this side of Salt Lake City. KAREN ELLIS'S A MAP OF THE DARK (Mulholland/Little, Brown, $26) is a valiant, if unsuccessful attempt to contain an intensely personal narrative within the structure of a traditional police procedural. Special Agent Elsa Myers of the F.B.I.'s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment division is assigned to the case of 17-year-old Ruby Haverstock, who went missing after finishing her shift at a cafe in Queens. Even from the little we learn about her, Ruby seems like a clever, resourceful girl. (As her kidnapper drags her off to a cave in the woods, she drops several rings to create a trail of clues.) For some reason that isn't made clear, this particular case awakens Myers's memories of mistreatment at the hands of her unstable and abusive mother. That may shed some light on the agent's secret habit of cutting herself with the Swiss Army knife she keeps with her at all times. ("The puncture of metal, the breaking of skin, comes with a rush of sensation that assures you that you are real after all.") But it doesn't begin to explain how she can cut herself until she bleeds and still handle such a demanding and dangerous job. 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 [January 21, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
Elsa Myers is tired of it all. The canny FBI agent wants to spend time with her dying father, but when she's told she's the only one who can help with the case of a missing New York City teen, she reluctantly becomes involved. The case, as well as the imminent death of Elsa's father, whom she resents for not protecting her when she was an endangered child, brings up harsh memories and the desire to self-harm that is never far off in her mind. The story is, at times, narrated by the missing teen, creating a tense tale that keeps the reader wondering if abusers ever get their due and whether true escape is really ever possible. While Ellis' novel isn't too different from the many abducted-girl tales out there, it's compelling nonetheless and makes a solid choice for readers who enjoy Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, which stars another self-doubting female detective trying to make it in a man's world.--Verma, Henrietta Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of this riveting series launch from the pseudonymous Ellis, FBI special agent Elsa Myers, a member of the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Unit operating out of New York City, answers a summons from Det. Lex Cole, who's fresh out of vice and new to missing child cases, to meet him at his office in Queens. Ruby Haverstock, a 17-year-old high school student with a stable home life and no cause to run away, has disappeared. Ruby was last seen at the Queens café where she worked part-time. Oddly, just before the end of her shift, she turned off the security camera and buzzed someone in. As the time clock for finding Ruby ticks down, Elsa and Lex chase numerous false leads and Elsa attempts to balance the investigation and familial obligations: her father is dying in a hospital north of the city. When a suspect is finally revealed, so is a deeply personal connection to Elsa. Multiple points of view and glimpses into Elsa's dark past heighten tension; the tight plotting will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
FBI agent Elsa Myer has a lot on her plate. Her father is dying of cancer. Her relationships with her sister and niece are complicated. And she's been assigned the case of a missing girl, abducted from Forest Hills, Queens, who may be the victim of a serial offender. When not interviewing witnesses or chasing down leads, Elsa keeps vigil at her terminally ill father's bedside. There she traces memories of her own difficult childhood-including a series of horrific events that continue to define her. While savvy readers won't have too much trouble identifying the kidnapper or teasing out the shocking revelation at the center of Elsa's tragic backstory, they will still be captivated by the tight prose, strong characters, and deft storytelling. VERDICT Ellis, the pen name for crime novelist Katia Lief ("Karin Schaeffer" series), has written a riveting tale that begs to be read in one sitting. Readers who enjoy police procedurals and Karin Slaughter's thrillers will delight in discovering a new voice.-Amy Hoseth, Colorado State Univ. Lib., Fort Collins © 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
A troubled FBI agent must find a missing teen while coming to terms with her father's impending death in the pseudonymous Ellis' satisfying debut.Special Agent Elsa Myers of the New York City Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Unit is good at her job, but it doesn't quite explain why she's pulled away from her father's bedside to join in the hunt for Ruby Haverstock, a missing 17-year-old girl. Elsa is partnered with former NYPD vice detective Alexei "Lex" Cole, who's new to missing persons cases. Lex turns out to be an able partner, but he irritates as much as intrigues Elsa, who isn't one to get close to anyoneand is hiding her own secrets. Over the course of about a week, Elsa and Lex's search takes them into the mind of a man with a dark mission, one they must decipher before it's too late. Ellis writes with a lyrical economy, alternating between glimpses into Elsa's fraught childhood and the case at hand. Elsa loves her father but resents him for not shielding her from the vicious punishments meted out by her mother, who was killed when Elsa was 16. The insights into Elsa's pain and her crippling compulsion to cut herself, honed while hiding from her mother's violent outbursts, are particularly affecting: "She scratches every neon-pulsing scar on her legs, hips, stomach, arms. The pictogram of her failures heat to the hard edges of her fingernails, the crude blade-drawn outlines of sometimes somethinga closed eye with lashes, a bird able to fly away, a marble capable of rolling away unseen, the number 7 because she once thought it was luckyand often nothing, just scratches, cuts tallied on her skin."Readers will savor getting to know this singular heroine, a cop who feels the call of a lost child as sharply as the knife's edge that she uses to score her own skin. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
