A high-voltage page-turner that won’t overpower nontechnical readers.
Following a blackout, a Virginia computer-security expert investigates an anomaly that could indicate a bigger catastrophe on the way in Diamond’s thriller.
After two hurricane strikes trigger a massive power outage, a concurrent heat wave kills thousands along the East Coast. Sean Riggs, a former computer-security hire for utilities giant Empire Energy, is at home, pondering the question that got him fired by his hateful boss, Ray Cooper: Why is Empire’s testing software—meant to run in isolation to check the troubled power grid—apparently infused with malicious code, apparently created by unknown programmers in China? Sean’s one-man inquiry is delightfully interrupted by the affections of Danielle Duval,an outgoing single woman who falls for Sean (and his working, solar-cell-enabled HVAC). Meanwhile, Sean’s hacking of his ex-employer’s computer system draws the attention of Anya Lakhani, a government investigator who’s initially stymied by Sean’s near-foolproof methods. Soon, though, she begins picking up his online trail, just as he determines that a more devastating attack on America’s power infrastructure is planned. On the outskirts of the narrative are Del Wright, a good-old-boy Empire field engineer and Donna Cooper, Ray’s downtrodden wife, terrorized by her cruel husband’s right-wing Christian fanaticism. There’s a fairly small field of suspects in this mystery, but Diamond still crafts it into a relatable, megawattage cyberthriller that’s worthy of 1970s-era spinner-rack pulp fiction, brought up to date with sharp characterization; skillful, cinematic cross-cutting; and timely infusions of paranoia and modern-day terrorism. The tech is lucidly explained, for readers who aren’t allergic to infotech: “The encrypted value is some kind of key. It's the trigger that sets the whole thing in motion. If it's encrypted, if no one can read it, then no one knows what will set this thing off.” In a chilling touch, Diamond adds an afterword describing the real-life inspirations for his amped-up premise.
A high-voltage page-turner that won’t overpower nontechnical readers.Pub Date: June 30, 2025
ISBN: 9798988872214
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Stolen Time Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s just as exhausting as it sounds, but it may be the most ambitious spy novel you’ve ever read.
What happens when an eminent mystery novelist collaborates with an award-winning journalist on a spy thriller? Pretty much everything you can imagine.
While food blogger Alice Li is in retreat from her overbearing mother, famous Chinese dissident Vivien Li, in a restaurant bathroom, the alarm goes off. And not just the fire alarm, but every alarm in the city, the country, and around the world. Their triggering is clearly an act of terrorism, and the silencing of all those alarms, which comes as suddenly and inexplicably as their screeching, is anything but reassuring. Vivien spirits her daughter off to the White House, where Grant McAllister, the director of National Intelligence, informs Alice that her friend and fellow blogger Liam Palmer has just been fished from the Hong Kong harbor. McAllister and Alan Zhou, head of the China Mission Center, are convinced Liam knew something about those alarms, and President Fraser Pardington is determined to do whatever he can to prevent a sequel. He fails, of course, and the second act of global terrorism is even more disastrous than the first. All the president’s men and women initially believe the threat comes from the Chinese government, and Chinese President Chen Jiayang thinks the Americans might be behind it. Alice and Vivien race around the globe to track down the culprit, and what they find will knit together the fates of Alice’s family, the U.S. and China, and the history of the world as we know it.
It’s just as exhausting as it sounds, but it may be the most ambitious spy novel you’ve ever read.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781250412522
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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