A chillingly addictive story of sex, money, romance, and revenge.
A female sex worker decides to take one last job before retiring from the profession, but everything goes wrong.
Dora is a high-end escort in London who’s grown accustomed to her life. She has all the right systems in place to keep herself feeling safe despite the potentially hazardous nature of her profession. Her manager, Elspeth, vets each client, explaining that Dora does not indulge certain fetishes. Elspeth ensures that no one has Dora’s direct line, nor do they know her real name. Dora expects she’ll continue in her line of work indefinitely—until the day a client beats her badly enough to send her to the hospital. Following the beating, Dora’s one true friend, Evan, insists that she must quit. Dora is reluctant to take his advice, which she’s heard many times before, until Evan, who has long been in love with Dora, proposes. To her surprise, she accepts and begins preparing to leave her old life behind. But then a longtime client calls begging Dora to escort him on a getaway where his friends will be coupled up. Dora reluctantly agrees to take on this final assignment, provided there will be no sex. Unfortunately, as the trip unfolds, she realizes she has stepped into something far more nefarious than a simply holiday. At a luxurious but secluded French estate, with a missing cellphone, too much alcohol, and a brain that starts playing tricks on her, Dora suddenly fears for her safety. Told in the first person, primarily from Dora’s perspective, the story is engaging and evocative throughout. Brimming with sensuality and suspense, the novel is also full of inside details about life as a sex worker. Although many questions are left maddeningly unanswered and certain plot points feel flimsy (like the attachment that Evan and Dora feel for each other), the intrigue never wavers. A sudden change of narrator deep in the story feels both jarring and unnecessary, but as soon as the narrative returns to Dora, the story picks up at a furious pace. Readers should be aware of several dark and potentially triggering topics, including drug use, violence, and rape.
A chillingly addictive story of sex, money, romance, and revenge.Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-778-38677-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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