An action-packed and emotionally resonant spy thriller.
In Wittenborn’s espionage thriller, a North Korean spy must reckon with her lifelong indoctrination.
Yeong Hwa is only in her 20s by the time she’s carrying out acts of terrorism for her North Korean homeland. She’s tasked with planting explosives on a South Korean commercial aircraft to deter attendance to the 1988 Seoul Olympics; her country hopes this act will weaken South Korea’s global reputation, bringing it closer to its goal of a unified Korea. Yeong Hwa has been training for moments like this practically since the day of her birth—after she was recognized as a child of extraordinary talent and intellect, her education was shifted from the standard North Korean civilian indoctrination into training to become a special agent. She’s never wavered in her devotion to the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, and she’s held strong in her belief that North Korea’s path is righteous, even if she may struggle to understand certain orders (“To think of these people as enemies didn’t work for her”). The plane bombing is a success, but Yeong Hwa is apprehended on her trip home. Her attempted suicide is thwarted, and she’s taken into custody. She fears the worst, having heard horror stories of South Korea and other enemies in the West, so she’s shocked when her captors debunk the lies of her homeland. (“Was the South Korean capital really so attractive?…Had she been deceived by her leaders?”) Wittenborn, who spent 25 years teaching in the History and Asian Studies Departments at San Diego State University, excels at leveraging his expertise in the subject matter to make Yeong Hwa’s involvement with the North Korean regime believable. The novel’s most gripping element is the handling of Yeong Hwa herself; the story pulls no punches regarding the consequences of her ingrained beliefs while remaining sympathetic about the indoctrination she’s undergone simply because of where she was born. Yeong Hwa’s journey toward freedom is emotionally compelling, and the high-octane action ensures that the stakes of the plot match those of her internal struggle.
An action-packed and emotionally resonant spy thriller.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2026
ISBN: 9798244371642
Page Count: 416
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
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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