June 30, 2022

Winnipeg
19° C, Partly cloudy

Full Forecast

Contact Us Subscribe Manage Subscription Chat with us
Log in Create Free Account Help Chat with us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising Contact
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Subscribe to Newsletters

    • Finding your
      information

    • My Account
    • Manage my Subscription
    • Change Password

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate

    • Log Out
    • Log in
    • Create Free Account
    • Help

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate
  • Coronavirus Coverage
  • Replica E-Edition
    • About the E-Edition
    • Winnipeg Free Press
    • Community Review East
    • Community Review West
  • Above the Fold
  • Front page
  • Arts & Life
    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Book Club
    • Cannabis
    • Celebrities
    • Diversions
    • Puzzles
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Your Health
    • Life & Style
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Science & Technology
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Business
    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
    • Manitoba's Top Employers
  • Canada
  • Local
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Auto Racing
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • Golf
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Horse Racing
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Olympics
    • Soccer
  • World
  • Reader BridgeNEW
  • WFP EventsNEW
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Us
    • Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
    • FP Newspapers Inc.
    • History
    • Internships
    • Job Opportunities
    • News Café
    • Privacy Policy
    • Retail Locations
    • Staff Biographies
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Archives
  • Free Press Community Review
    • All Free Press Community Review News
    • East Edition
    • West Edition
    • Sports
    • Events
    • Contact Us
    • E-Editions
  • Classifieds
  • Contests
  • Coupons
    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print Coupons
    • Ripley's Aquariums Coupons
    • The Bay Coupons
    • Staples Canada Coupons
    • Altitude Sports Coupons
    • Nike Coupons
    • Tuango Coupons
    • Ebay Canada Coupons
    • Sport Chek Coupons
    • Roots Coupons
  • LifestylesNEW
    • All Lifestyles
    • Business Hub
    • Community
    • Drink & Dine
    • Life
    • Wellness
    • Whiskers & Wings
    • Sponsored Articles
  • Homes
    • Property Listings
    • Featured News
    • Renovation and design
    • New homes
    • Resale homes
  • Newsletters
  • Obituaries
  • Puzzles
  • Photo and Book store
  • More

©2022 FP Newspaper Inc.

Close
  • Quick Links

    • Coronavirus Coverage
    • Federal Election
    • Above the Fold
    • Home
    • Local
    • Canada
    • World
    • Classifieds
    • Special Coverage
    • Newsletters
    • Obituaries
    • Photo and Book store
    • Archives
    • Contests
    • Publications
    • Sponsored Content
    • Privacy Policy

    Ways to support us

    • Pay it Forward program
    • Subscribe
    • Support Faith coverage
    • Support Arts coverage
  • Replica E-Edition

    • About the E-Edition
    • Winnipeg Free Press
    • Community Review East
    • Community Review West

    Business

    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
  • Arts & Life

    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Cannabis
    • Celebrities
    • Diversions
    • Puzzles
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Your Health
    • Life & Style
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Science & Technology
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Sports

    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Auto Racing
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • Golf
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Horse Racing
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Olympics
    • Soccer
  • Opinion

    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor

    Media

    • All Media
    • Photo Galleries
    • Videos

    Homes

    • Property Listings
    • Featured News
    • Renovation and design
    • New homes
    • Resale homes
  • Canstar Community News

    • All Free Press Community Review News
    • East Edition
    • West Edition
    • Sports
    • Events
    • Contact Us
    • E-Editions
  • Coupons

    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print Coupons
    • Ripley's Aquariums Coupons
    • The Bay Coupons
    • Staples Canada Coupons
    • Altitude Sports Coupons
    • Nike Coupons
    • Tuango Coupons
    • Ebay Canada Coupons
    • Sport Chek Coupons
    • Roots Coupons
  • About Us

    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Us
    • Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
    • FP Newspapers Inc.
    • History
    • Internships
    • Job Opportunities
    • News Café
    • Privacy Policy
    • Retail Locations
    • Staff Biographies
    • Terms and Conditions
The Free Press
Articles Read
Your Balance +tax
Day Pass Till
Day Pass
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising Contact
    • Report an Error
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
    • Staff Biographies
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Subscribe to Newsletters

    • Finding your
      information

    • Log in
    • Create Account
    • Help
    • Chat with us

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate
    • My Account
    • Manage My Subscription
    • Change Password
    • Chat with us

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate

    • Log Out
Log in Create Account Contact Us
Contact Us Manage Subscription
  • Sections
  • Local
  • Arts & Life
    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Diversions
    • Environment
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Health
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Business
    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
    • Manitoba's Top Employers
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Soccer
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
  • E-Edition
  • Homes
  • Classifieds
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Automotive
    • Careers
    • Garage Sales
    • Merchandise
    • Pets
    • Real Estate
    • Rentals
    • Services
  • Lifestyles
    • Business Hub
    • Community
    • Drink & Dine
    • Life
    • Manitoba’s Top Employers
    • Wellness
    • Whiskers & Wings
    • Sponsored Articles
  • Coupons
    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print
    • Ripley's Aquariums
    • The Bay
    • Staples Canada
    • Altitude Sports
    • Nike
    • Tuango
    • Ebay Canada
    • Sport Chek
    • Roots
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe$1.50 for 5 months
Home Arts & Life Arts & Entertainment Books

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Windy City thriller packs plenty of surprises

Paperbacks By: David Pitt
Posted: 4:00 AM CDT Saturday, Jun. 2, 2018
Last Modified: 9:53 AM CDT Saturday, Jun. 2, 2018 | Updates

  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Print
  • Email
  • Save to Read Later

In J.D. Barker’s The Fourth Monkey (Mariner, 427 pages, $21), a Chicago cop races against time to uncover the identity of a serial killer and save the life of a teenage girl.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 2/6/2018 (1489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In J.D. Barker’s The Fourth Monkey (Mariner, 427 pages, $21), a Chicago cop races against time to uncover the identity of a serial killer and save the life of a teenage girl.

Actually, the story is a lot more complicated than that, with plenty of dead-end alleys and delicious surprises, but to say more here would risk spoiling the book.

That would be a shame, because this is one hell of a book: brilliantly plotted and exceedingly well written, with characters as real as anyone you might meet on the street.

It’s the first of a trilogy (the sequel, The Fifth to Die, comes out in July), but when the book opens, the killer has already been operating for five years, and there’s a general air of frantic desperation, as if the investigators know they’d better find him soon, or they’ll never find him at all.

In a genre full of retreads and cookie-cutter characters, The Fourth Monkey is a breath of fresh air.


Tim Lebbon’s dark-edged urban fantasy The Folded Land (Titan 336 pages, $20) is the sequel to 2017’s Relics. After she discovered that mythological creatures such as fairies and centaurs aren’t so mythological after all, Angela Gough ran afoul of a rather nasty antiquities dealer; now in this fast-paced sequel she is on the lam, hiding from pursuers both human and inhuman.

After Angela’s niece Sammi is hit by lightning (twice!), she’s spirited away by a malevolent fairy — one with whom Angela has a rather tortured history.

Now, Angela is forced to put her own life on the line to rescue Sammi; but how long can she stay one step ahead of the people (and creatures) determined to hunt her down?

Lebbon is one of those writers who can take a frankly outlandish premise and make it feel not just plausible, but natural, as though mythological creatures have always existed among us and we simply hadn’t noticed them until now. Splendid.


Jeffrey Kluger’s Lost Moon (1994) told the story of the 1970 Apollo 13 moon mission, in which the spacecraft suffered a catastrophic that nearly killed the crew.

Now, in Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon (Picador, 307 pages, $24), Kluger skips back in time a few years and chronicles the first NASA mission to orbit the moon and return home.

The author doesn’t merely tell us about the space flight itself; he also takes us through the selection of the astronauts, the development of the specialized equipment and the sometimes brutal training regimen.

Kluger’s knowledge of the history of the American space program serves him well here; this is no bland piece of reportage, no dry recitation of facts.

It is, as its subtitle says, a thrilling story, beautifully written.


Jane Hawk, the FBI agent introduced in Dean Koontz’s The Silent Corner (2017), returns with a vengeance — literally — in The Whispering Room (Bantam, 631 pages, $13).

The Free Press | Newsletter

Embrace your inner bookworm

Join the Free Press Book Club for monthly picks and online meetings.

Join the Free Press Book Club
Sign Up

Jane, whose investigation into her husband’s death led her to uncover a massive conspiracy, is now on the run, pursued by her former colleagues, not to mention pretty much every other law-enforcement agency in the country.

Jane has only one thing on her mind: finding the people behind the conspiracy and making them pay for her husband’s death.

In his long literary career Koontz has created many memorable characters, and it’s safe to say that Jane Hawk is among his most elegantly designed and compellingly written.

She’s smart, tough and resourceful, that much is clear; what also becomes clear is that she is manifestly (perhaps dangerously) obsessive, as though the whole world has narrowed to a single compulsion: find the conspirators and avenge her husband.

Is Jane headed inevitably toward self-destruction? Crack open this cracking-good thriller and find out.

Halifax writer David Pitt’s paperbacks column runs the first Saturday of every month. Follow him on Twitter at @bookfella.

If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism.
BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

History

Updated on Saturday, June 2, 2018 at 9:53 AM CDT: Headline fixed.

  • Report Error
  • Submit a Tip
  • Refund
  • The Free Press is certified by

The Winnipeg Free Press invites you to share your opinion on this story in a letter to the editor. A selection of letters to the editor are published daily.

To submit a letter:
• fill out the form on this page, or
• email letters@freepress.mb.ca, or
• mail Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2X 3B6.

Letters must include the writer’s full name, address, and a daytime phone number. Letters are edited for length and clarity.

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Top