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Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of this stellar standalone from Knopf (Tango Down and seven other Sam Acquillo mysteries), Dr. Waters, an organizational psychologist for ExciteAble Technologies, a New Haven, Conn., aerospace manufacturing company, comes home one night to find the bloody head of the company's owner, Paresh Rajput, on a bedroom floor. The New Haven police, for whom Waters has done consulting work, soon gather circumstantial evidence pointing to his guilt. A suspiciously large direct deposit was made from ExciteAble to his account the day of Rajput's death, of which he claims to know nothing, and the rest of his boss's body turns up in his rented storage unit. Part of Waters's job, from which he's suspended, involved screening prospective employees; now he's the one under scrutiny. Anonymous death threats against him raise the stakes, as does his discovery that ExciteAble is under investigation for defrauding the federal government. Knopf plays fair as he matches well-developed characters with a crafty whodunit plot, one whose resolution few readers will anticipate. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The versatile Knopf (Tango Down, 2017, etc.) kicks off a new series starring a reluctant investigator who's "like the Terminator with an advanced degree."Not many people recover from childhood autism, but Waters did, more or less. He's so good at reading other poker players' tells that he's been banned from the casinos, and fellow player Paresh Rajput naturally hired him as an organizational psychologist for his firm, ExciteAble Technologies. But he still won't tell anyone his first name, he looks everyone he meets unflinchingly in the eye, and he's taken a married lover, Olivia Lefvre, who doesn't love him any more than he loves her. Waters' orderly life ends when he comes home from the gym to find Paresh's severed head sitting on the floor of his guest room (the rest of his body will soon turn up in Waters' storage locker). Megan Rajput and Waters' co-workers at ExciteAble all seem above suspicion, but that doesn't matter anyway because DS Noah Shapiro, of the New Haven Police Department, is sure that Waters is his killer. As the evidence against him mounts, so does the danger. The real murderer alternately taunts and threatens Waters over the telephone, arranges for suspiciously large cash transfers from Paresh's bank account to his own, plants firecrackers in the hotel room the crime-scene crew has obliged him to hole up in, sends a burly thug to beat him up, and finally resorts to settling their dispute the good old American way, by shooting at him. Through it all, Waters remains, if not exactly ebullient, then certainly dispassionate as he returns the threats, dodges the firecrackers and bullets, and, fortified by years of wrestling and bodybuilding, turns the tables on the thug en route to exposing a nefarious, if not exactly unexpected, scheme against ExciteAble Technologies.Finally, a professional-grade detection-cum-actioner with a hero who actually has a logical reason for being so emotionally disengaged. More, please. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Waters, a man who goes only by his surname (his first name never took, and he eschews his title of Dr.) is being set up. An organizational psychologist for the aerospace manufacturer ExciteAble Technologies, he returns to his condo one night to find the dismembered head of his boss, Paresh Rajput, in a pool of blood in the spare bedroom. Then a large sum of money is transferred into his account, and his mortgage is paid off, both by direct deposits from Rajput's' ExciteAble account. Finally, Rajput's body is found in Waters' secure storage unit. When a robotic male voice telephones the message, You're dead, it's just the beginning of threats to Waters' well-being, as he tries to clear himself as a suspect in Rajput's murder while managing to stay alive. Waters eventually unravels a convoluted plot involving unlikely participants, but the highlight here is less the story than the character. Waters, who was trained to overcome his autistic behavior by his older brother, is a weight lifter with a wrestling background whose personal experience and education give him a unique understanding of himself and others. Readers wanting to see Waters again will hope this outstanding thriller spawns a series.--Michele Leber Copyright 2018 Booklist