A compelling courtroom drama that overcomes its limitations.
Two Polish American lawyers defend a Black Latinx activist in this sequel.
In this legal thriller, Charns brings back Star Gwiazda and her law partner, Zenko Luczek, now court-appointed attorneys defending Marcos Salazar Jones against charges of shooting a Durham, North Carolina, police officer. Zenko is certain that the officer shot himself and framed Marcos, a local Black Lives Matter activist. But the lawyer has his doubts about whether the jury will agree, or if the talented but unpredictable Star’s courtroom theatrics will be too much. The tension remains high from jury selection to verdict, with the toppling of a local Confederate statue and vandalism and violence against Star and Zenko making life outside the courtroom just as complicated. The story’s subplots touch on a wide range of topics, from hockey and the Polish American experience—Zenko’s narration often turns to his childhood in Detroit’s Polish community—to the law partners’ histories of mental illness, while keeping a focus on the events taking place inside the courtroom. The narration is cynical and biting (the police officer is “a Robocop Mr. Clean without the earring”; Zenko attributes his success to “Al-Anon, hockey and staying out of bad relationships, not necessarily in that order”) as well as entertaining, keeping the pages turning despite the almost too-detailed courtroom play-by-plays. While the book spends more time on the minutiae of legal practice, precedent, and witness questioning than most in the genre, it does so in a way that feels informative and engaging rather than tedious. The novel does have its limitations. Some typos are distracting (“The smell of lemon-scented bleach, sweat, and sewage envelope us”), and a plot twist on the work’s penultimate page turns the tale’s emotional resolution on its head, cutting into the sense of vindication that dominates to that point. But on the whole, the thriller is a satisfying read, telling a solid story while exploring questions of faith, Whiteness, and relationships and incorporating current events and present-day realities into the framework of a classic fight-the-system tale.
A compelling courtroom drama that overcomes its limitations.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 225
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 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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