An engaging thriller that, despite some flaws, contains storytelling that pulls readers compulsively onward.
An American family’s trip to see koalas and Australian wildlife becomes a life-and-death situation after they kill an innocent woman in a car crash and her family seeks revenge.
Tom, 44; his second wife, Heather, 24; and his kids, Olivia, 14, and Owen, 12, are in Australia, piggybacking a family vacation onto a business trip. After a difficult year that saw the death of Tom’s first wife and his marriage to Heather—whom the kids dislike—a group trip seems like a way to bring them all together. Renting a car to drive to the coast in search of interesting animals seems like a fun excursion. But while stopping at a roadside stand for food, the family gets to talking with some local people, and they end up on a tiny ferry to a remote private island in search of the wildlife they haven’t yet seen. Once on the island, one thing leads to another, and Tom, driving too fast, hits a woman on a bike, killing her instantly. Over several generations, the family that lives on the island has become a law unto itself, and after realizing that the woman is dead, they seek retribution—whether it will be via death, rape, or cash is to be decided by Ma, the head of the family, and Danny, the husband of the woman who's been killed. Some elements of the survival story feel more like convenient plot points than believable developments, and the writing is occasionally overwrought as McKinty seeks to make weighty statements about life, death, and spiritual links to the natural world, but on the whole, McKinty has written an exciting thriller that follows Heather and the others as they seek to run, hide, and survive the elements until the police—whom they have no way of contacting—can arrive.
An engaging thriller that, despite some flaws, contains storytelling that pulls readers compulsively onward.Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-53128-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Imaginative, impressive, and illuminating.
A 12-year-old girl determines to unmask a serial killer in this extravagantly ambitious story of small-town Britain in 1979.
On the surface, Miv’s life seems to belong to an idyllic bygone era: She and her best friend, Sharon, walk to school every morning, passing a “snappy Jack Russell” and stopping to greet Omar, “the man in the corner shop,” who calls them the “Terrible Twosome.” But danger lurks around the edges of these familiar paths and faces; it’s been a few years since the Yorkshire Ripper began murdering nearby women, and the women and girls of the town have started taking a little extra care when they’re walking late and alone. Margaret Thatcher has recently been elected prime minister, pushing certain strains of misogyny and racism to the forefront of conversations and village life. For her part, Miv is trying to adjust to her mother’s complete withdrawal from the family due to depression. When she has the opportunity to make a wish, she wishes to “be the person to catch the Yorkshire Ripper,” and so begins a series of events that will forge friendships, expose bigots, and culminate in both tragedy and catharsis. The scope of the book is significant, and Godfrey shows a masterful control of the sprawl. This is a novel about a particular time that looks both backward and forward. For Miv and Sharon, straddling the gulf between childhood and adulthood and beginning to learn who they are, it’s a coming-of-age story; for Britain, struggling to hold space for a strong female leader alongside her conservative and xenophobic policies, it’s equally a story of reluctant yet inevitable change. Despite some chapters told from other characters’ perspectives, this is very much Miv’s tale, and hers is one of the most engaging voices in recent fiction, both heartbreakingly innocent and incisively intelligent.
Imaginative, impressive, and illuminating.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781464249051
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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