The X-Files meets William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist in the backwoods of Appalachia.
Doucette’s thriller follows an FBI agent haunted by a terrifying childhood trauma that threatens to destroy him—and countless innocents.
When FBI profiler Tom Milner was a child, he and his family moved from New York City to Betonville, Pennsylvania, a small town in the rural northwestern part of the state. One night, on a dare, the 5-year-old Milner and his best friend, Ben Potter, rode their bikes into the woods bordering the Allegheny National Forest—about a half-million acres of largely unexplored wilderness—where they were tasked by schoolmates with finding an old haunted cemetery under a bloodred moon. The spooky dare soon turned into a living nightmare; Milner thought he saw a giant, fur-covered creature crash through the darkness on the cliffs above him. The sound coming from the red-eyed thing was horrifying, and Milner and his friend barely escaped with their lives: “It was guttural and loud, like the enraged screams of a man mixed with the roar of a lion or a bear.” Decades later, working as one of the FBI’s most successful profilers (and struggling to stay afloat as a barely functioning alcoholic), Milner is called back to Betonville when a massive “boneyard” is discovered near the national forest. The site contains dozens of decomposed bodies whose deaths span over a century, and Milner knows instinctively that the carnage is somehow tied to the creature, who may or may not be a figment of his younger self’s imagination. With his old friend Ben (who’s now the Betonville sheriff) assisting him, Milner discovers a horrific truth: He is intimately connected to “Satan’s beast.” Doucette’s chilling novel is a darkly delectable offering sure to appeal to fans of police procedurals and supernatural thrillers. The blend of gritty crime fiction, local folklore, and paranormal fantasy is perfect, creating a storyline in which anything can happen. References to serial killers, satanic cults, bloody rituals, and even the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 add complementary layers of bladder-loosening horror and tonally spot-on humor to the story.
The X-Files meets William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist in the backwoods of Appalachia.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2026
ISBN: 9798247669944
Page Count: 478
Publisher: Solstice Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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