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Published Mar 2019
352 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
30 years ago a superhero tried to save Chicago. Now the city is again under siege, in this gritty, suspenseful, and beautifully written novel from award-winning debut author T.J. Martinson.
Somewhere in Chicago, a roomful of people have been taken hostage. The hostages will be killed one by one, the masked gunman says on-screen, unless the police will admit that they faked the death of the legendary superhero called the Kingfisher and helped him to give up his defense of the city thirty years ago.
Retired reporter Marcus Waters made his name as a journalist covering the enigmatic superhero's five years of cleaning up Chicago's streets. Then the Kingfisher died, Chicago resumed its violent turmoil, and Marcus slid back into obscurity.
But did the Kingfisher really die? And who would take hostages connected to the Kingfisher's past attempts to clean up the streets? With the help of disgraced police officer Lucinda Tillman and a young hacktivist named Wren, Marcus will explore the city's violence, corruption, and chaos to figure out if the vigilante hero died tragically, or gave up hope and abandoned the city - and for the hostages, the clock is ticking.
"Starred Review. Martinson ratchets up the tension and keeps the suspense high to the end. Readers will eagerly await his next novel." - Publishers Weekly
"A solid crime novel about people just trying to do the right thing in a bad old world." - Kirkus
"The Reign of the Kingfisher is an extraordinary novel. Martinson's prose is so stunning, and his characters so indelible, that I'd suggest you read it even if you don't read comic books and have little interest in superheroes; this is a book for people who like reading really, really good books. It's an exciting debut, and a story that will stay with you for a long time." - Emily St. John Mandel, NYT bestselling author of Station Eleven
This information about The Reign of the Kingfisher was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
T.J. Martinson grew up just outside Chicago. He received his MA in literary studies from Eastern Illinois University and is currently working toward a Ph.D. at Indiana University Bloomington. The Reign of the Kingfisher is his debut novel.
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