An engaging yarn that gene-splices SF and a David Baldacci–esque Beltway action-thriller.
In this sequel, a Washington, D.C., woman mentally linked to a groundbreaking computer announces her intention to run for president amid a scandal-ridden and criminal White House administration.
This SF political thriller follows Berger’s Adama (2016). When last seen, United States government agent and cutting-edge science researcher Matt Cranston had married beautiful Mallory Bartlett, an international executive, after the pair perilously smuggled a revolutionary artificial intelligence computer out of Israel. Called Adama (Mallory assigned the device a female identity), she is enhanced with human DNA and is self-aware. Adama exhibits a personality—at once humorous, somewhat domineering, and even threatening—demanding the next step in machine evolution: occupying a human body. Adama reveals that, via digital telepathy, she can upload her essence into Mallory, and Matt is (surprisingly) agreeable to his wife’s being intimately linked to the world’s most powerful sentient technology. Meanwhile, American President Patrick Allen is a foul sex predator not above planning murder to protect himself. Secretary of State Clarence Harrington, who schemes against Allen, is no better. Harrington’s son-in-law, an engineer on the Adama project, has vengefully programmed the AI with a drive to be the new president and set the U.S. back on track, a directive Adama continues once she shares Mallory’s body. The new Mallory enchants the National Independent Party and becomes its candidate; Matt and his ambitious wife have great sex; and even peripheral players (like a crusading reporter out to nail the despicable Allen) enjoy upgraded bedroom performances. Though the setting is declared as 2020, readers who are political scorekeepers will find no officeholders identified as Republicans or Democrats, and the main issue debated is climate change (Adama seems to be a skeptic). Rather like a third-party coalition, the book is an odds-and-ends mix of things: thriller, SF, cyberpunk, romance, and hopeful Washington drama reminiscent of James Stewart’s turn as Mr. Smith—never really settling. Still, there is no doubt that most readers of this captivating story would prefer a President Mallory Cranston in the West Wing over most of the actual White House occupants of the 21st century.
An engaging yarn that gene-splices SF and a David Baldacci–esque Beltway action-thriller. (author bio)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-66320-956-6
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Iuniverse Inc
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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