A thoroughly enjoyable and skillfully crafted tale.
In Cherin’s novel, four strangers aim to win $50,000 in a contest from a Southern California radio station.
In 1981, Michael Kingman is a DJ for the “Mighty 690,” a Top 40 radio station based out of San Diego. Disenchanted with the station’s new management and wanting a career change, Michael decides to hold a treasure hunt as a last hurrah before hopefully moving on to greener pastures. The station hides $50,000 and Michael discloses a new clue to his listeners each day, hinting at the money’s location. The three (ultimately four) contestants at the center of the narrative are Danny Baker, a lonely motorcycle racer who spends much of his career crashing his bike; Sally Lang, a single mother and bank teller who is stealing money from her job; and Augie Kloptman, a Holocaust survivor who relocated from New York after losing his wife, Esther. Danny has dreams of opening a mechanic shop. Sally needs the money because an auditor is coming to check up on the bank—a co-worker knows she has been embezzling, so Sally needs to cover her tracks. Augie, a janitor at a local shul, enlists the help of 14-year-old Jason Schneidman to decode the station’s clues, and the pair form an unlikely but charming partnership. What comes through most strongly in Cherin’s tale is the strange but heartwarming interconnectedness of existence, symbolized in this case by the radio. Supporting this theme are the ways in which the characters solve the station’s clues by associating the answers with memories or events in their lives (in a manner reminiscent of the film Slumdog Millionaire). Cherin’s prose is richly detailed, deftly describing the early ’80s setting as well as illustrating the specific environs of the characters: “She buttoned her blouse and walked through the dimly lit bedroom, an aroma of cigarette stains and mold wafting from the walls, and bounced her way like a pinball down the hallway...” Cherin’s story, equal parts engaging and evocative, feels human and lived in.
A thoroughly enjoyable and skillfully crafted tale.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9798989467204
Page Count: 172
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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
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