A wild and gripping occult adventure full of ancient knowledge and modern violence.
A debut crime novel focuses on a cult that seeks world domination.
An organization called the Ancient and Accepted Order of Light is not a group to be trifled with. This cult stole arcane knowledge from the ancient Egyptians—wisdom that is unlike anything else in the world. The material is so potent it “has the power to transmute the bearers into divine gods.” When in the wrong hands, it can keep most of the human population in either figurative or literal enslavement. In modern-day Houston, four people are murdered in a brutal fashion. A woman named Tina Johnson even has her tongue cut out. For police detective Trinidy, it all reminds him of the murder of his wife, Candice, five years ago. Candice’s killing was what inspired Trinidy to become a homicide detective. When he comes across a video made by Candice, he learns that the Order of Light has plans to release a virus to start a war. Unfortunately, the organization has members at all levels of government. Meanwhile, a man in prison named Amon undergoes esoteric training by utilizing a kind of transcendental meditation. While Amon, a man sentenced to life behind bars, may not appear to be a hero who will save the world, when one can access the soul plane, anything is possible. Seddique’s narrative incorporates the various characters and their different motivations very quickly. Soon after readers start following Trinidy and Amon, there are other cops and criminals and someone called the White Worshipful Master to contend with. Even Candice has an extensive backstory that relates to her father. Yet the horrific nature of the initial murders will keep readers intrigued. Why did Tina, a seemingly innocent food server, get her tongue cut out? Who among the many individuals in the narrative can actually be trusted? There are clearly some crazy developments in store. These twists, along with flying bullets and a runaway virus, will keep readers guessing about how the riveting tale will end.
A wild and gripping occult adventure full of ancient knowledge and modern violence.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9798201863456
Page Count: 378
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This thriller’s eerie mood is deflated by a plot with more holes than a Halloween sheet.
Could making a movie about the disappearance of five women from an island reawaken an evil presence there?
Five dresses hang from the topmost limbs of an oak on a remote island in a Vermont lake. That memorable image marks a mystery from a century ago, when five women believed to have been part of a commune vanished forever. As this novel opens, another group gathers on the island to make a movie based on that tale. Marin Keane, the narrator, is surprised but thrilled to find herself cast as one of the leads; she’s a struggling actor whose biggest part so far has been “Bridesmaid with Eczema” in a drug commercial, so playing Daisy Rue, whose haunting diary is the basis for the movie’s script, could be a career-making move. Ronan Peters, the writer-director, is talented and, Marin notes, hot. His reason for gathering the cast on the island is a kind of boot-camp rehearsal: They’ll spend a week living there, wearing period clothes, and managing without internet or phone service. Oh, and holding séances. What could go wrong? Marin quickly meets the other women in the cast: regal character actor Julianne Brown, cool and competent Heather Benchley, bratty former Disney star Susie Hutchinson, and, striking awe in all of them, Violet Wright, a much-awarded Meryl Streep-ish figure who will play the woman who brought the others to the island, which she owned. They get to work, but soon enough someone disappears. The book’s plot, like the movie’s script, largely follows Daisy’s journal, and since the reader is supplied with pages-long sections of that journal, there’s not much suspense about what will happen next. There are some effective set pieces, such as the group’s first séance. But in its last quarter, the plot collapses into a muddle of #MeToo vengeance, improbable secrets, and jarring character reveals that is, as Marin says, “the most Scooby-Doo thing I’ve ever heard.”
This thriller’s eerie mood is deflated by a plot with more holes than a Halloween sheet.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798217044092
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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