Patchwork pieces of crime, intrigue, and romance fall into place perfectly.
This Philadelphia police procedural serves as a backdrop for a romance between two broken but highly attractive detectives.
Detective Alexandra “Lexi” Danvers “was hollow inside...in a way no amount of sex or whiskey seemed able to fill.” That doesn’t stop the feline-eyed beauty from trying. Because of self-destructive behavior that includes getting served too many drinks and hooking up regularly at “cop bars,” her reputation on the force is that she’s unfit for duty in spite of her good work record. Her train-wreck conduct began three years ago when her husband, Robert, a police officer, chose suicide after a failed investigation into the kidnap and murder of 8-year-old Donald Palmer. Arthur Book’s confession to that crime was thrown out due to allegations of police coercion. Book walked free and successfully sued the city. Now, Xavier Knight, Lexi’s sexy new partner (“He’s got a great ass”), has a hidden agenda. Police Capt. Jack Barrett brought Knight from the Baltimore police force to Philadelphia to evaluate Lexi’s fitness. Knight also has a backstory that led to a damaged life. As soon as the two detectives are partnered, another 8-year-old boy is kidnapped and murdered, and Book starts tormenting Lexi. In addition to looking for the killer, shielding Lexi from Book, and keeping his mission to evaluate his partner a secret, Knight finds himself falling in love with her, as she does with him. As good as Flade’s storytelling is, the murders and suicides (yes, plural) are upsetting to read about, but they are not presented with over-the-top gore. And the flirtations that lead to something deeper balance the darkness of the crimes. In addition, the police investigation feels authentic. For example, Knight notes that the kidnapper/killer hunts in neighborhood parks but not in the crowded parts of the city because the snatch may be fast and anonymous there, “but the escape is near impossible.” There’s often welcome humor in the patter between the two detectives, as when Knight says: “For crying out loud, Danvers, don’t talk with your mouth full. And use a fork.”
Patchwork pieces of crime, intrigue, and romance fall into place perfectly.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 253
Publisher: Tirgearr Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.
Childhood friends, almost-sweethearts, a misunderstanding, and a funeral.
Blair Lang and Declan Renshaw were best friends who went on one date before a disagreement and an accident sent them in different directions after high school. Now Blair is back from college to be with her great-aunt Lottie, who’s dying, and to support her single mother in small-town Seabrook, California. Finding a job at a coffee shop puts her in the path of her former boyfriend, since he turns out to be its owner. Can the two get past their mistakes? The novel uses the popular second-chance romance trope, but Pham fails to energize it through interesting characters. Blair’s grief over her great-aunt’s death and her plan to help her mother are overshadowed by internal monologues about her feelings, the way her friends aren’t paying attention to her, and the novel she plans to write. Declan’s distinguishing characteristic, besides being a former high school quarterback, is his skill at building birdhouses. Unsurprisingly, the couple doesn’t have much chemistry; when they embrace, their “bodies meld like…memory foam.” The wooden characters, unusual word choices (“conglomerate of pedestrians,” “litany of plants”), and odd turns of phrase (“tension melting from his eyebrows like butter melting in a warm pan”) are almost enough to obscure the lack of plot development. What passes for stakes is easily defused when Blair comes into an inheritance that saves her from working as a consultant at Ernst & Young in New York—so she can write a romance novel.
A romance that could have used significant rethinking.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781668095188
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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