A simple yet delightfully left-field take on a fight against oppression.
Murray offers a near-future thriller sequel about a war on personal freedom.
In the first series installment, New York City was shown to have been taken over by a government that’s hostile to individual rights, particularly regarding religion. Enforcers known as Thought Police have the power to arrest and detain anyone. As one character explains it, they “don't believe in religion or moral values. They just act on the orders they are given by the soulless city government.” Two Jewish people in their 40s, Sue and David, fled to Long Island. The Thought Police don’t have jurisdiction there, and it’s home to a hotel turned safehouse run by Hilda, a leading member of the rebellious New York Freedom Fighters. She was kidnapped by the Thought Police at the end of the previous book, but her fellow Freedom Fighters find her, and she has ideas on how to fight against the city. To kick things off, several of her organization’s members, including Sue and David, head into Manhattan to rescue some Jewish people being held against their will in an apartment. The entire gang conduct the operation dressed as Batman; if anyone asks any questions, they plan to say that they’re merely in the city for a costume party. Although the mission is a success, it’s clear that much more will be required to make a dent in the oppressive society and to foil the Thought Police’s plan for an all-out assault on the city. David reflects on his new existence: “My life had become like an action movie.”
As in an action film, things move quickly in this brief book. No sooner has Hilda recovered from her abduction ordeal that she’s ready to try something new. “The cowards didn't have the guts to kill me,” she says of her kidnappers. And, indeed, throughout the story, the villains continually prove to be inept. The Freedom Fighters, by contrast, are highly skilled—sometimes despite themselves. For example, at one point, David says, “I don't know much about guns. I'm not sure how to fire it,” but he still manages to shoot a moving vehicle while riding in another. Such moments, combined with a mostly bloodless storyline (although there are some deaths) gives the story a unique feel that’s much different from a traditional thriller. It certainly proves to be stranger and more playful than one might expect in a work about a citywide totalitarian government. For instance, as in the first installment, there are dogs in the middle of the fray; when David is preparing to take the fateful shot, for instance, Sue, who’s in the car with him, struggles to keep a canine named Tim from “jumping up to look out the window.” The animal is humorously subdued with the help of some peanut butter cookies. Although it seems clear early on that the good guys will emerge triumphant (either in this volume or a later one), the fun comes in following the offbeat path they travel along the way.
A simple yet delightfully left-field take on a fight against oppression.Pub Date: April 8, 2022
ISBN: 9798449217967
Page Count: 108
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
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