An edgy, engaging mystery with a few intriguing twists.
In this second installment of an adventure series, somebody is killing priests in Italy and the pope seeks aid in finding the culprit.
It is 1607, and Sir Anthony Standen is now the proud owner of a vineyard in Frascati, about 15 miles outside of Rome. He and his wife, Francesca, have four children—two youngsters plus their indomitable 19-year-old twins, Antonio and Maria. Another baby is on the way, and Anthony is happy to be home with his family and finished with his years of perilous escapades fulfilling political and military missions for the pope. But now a frenemy of sorts from the past, Hugh O’Neill, the exiled Irish Earl of Tyrone, has come to visit. And after two days of pleasantries, there is a new arrival at the door—Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, bearing a request from Pope Paul, with the promise of substantial payment. Find the person who has torched two priests, leaving behind an especially gruesome tableau. The victims were struck on the head, tied up, then placed on a pile of brandy-soaked straw and set ablaze. Curiously, the straw was enclosed within a foot-high wall of earth, suggesting the brutal slayings are intriguingly symbolic. Hugh and Anthony, both in need of cash, agree to investigate. Thus begins a clever historical novel that mixes a touch of danger with papal politics and the newly emerging heretical theory that Earth revolves around the sun. West’s fictionalized account of the period treats readers to delightful face-to-face conversations with such luminaries as Galileo and his fellow champion of the Copernican theory of the universe, Venetian scientist and politician Paolo Sarpi. The drama plays out against the backdrop of historical religious and political rivalries roiling Europe at the time. But it is the author’s lively, frequently sardonic dialogue (despite Hugh’s quirks in linguistic construction, which are initially challenging) and meticulous attention to the details of fashion, lifestyle, and culinary indulgences that bring the past alive—and paint a scathing indictment of a cruel, devious, and power-hungry papacy. The final chapters, starring Anthony’s twins, signal a likely third installment.
An edgy, engaging mystery with a few intriguing twists.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-915225-03-0
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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