An engaging dark comedy rife with retribution.
McCormick offers a blood-soaked tale of upward mobility.
At the gory heart of this work is the mastermind known as Splice, whose criminal father and drug-addicted mother dump him on the side of an Iowa road as a teenager with nothing but a $50 bill. The precocious teen soon gets a library card, which enables him to learn new skills, including computer proficiency and pickpocketing. These abilities allow him to make a dishonest living, first in Omaha, then Chicago and New York City. But his life changes when he’s caught hacking into an ATM owned by an old man who’s high up in a major crime organization. Fortunately, the man takes a liking to him and even gives the boy, unnamed to this point, a new identity: Robert. The teen becomes the man’s constant companion but then decides to join the Marines, hoping to be able to access a military supercomputer. Robert befriends a mentally ill Marine named Catherine “Cat” Honig,and, in time, they form a secret commando squad that handles missions for a criminal syndicate. Despite painful missteps along the way, he accomplishes a high-tech dream and renames himself Splice. In this volume, McCormick ably creates likable action heroes out of people who don’t fit into society. Robert/Splice uses his intellect throughout in order to flourish, and his appealing ability to correctly predict people’s behavior allows him to survive his occasional lapses in judgment—even if what happens to him seems rather unlikely. Overall, readers will want him and Cat to come out on top after the setbacks that fate has handed them. Indeed, one finds it easier to appreciate the criminals’ motivations than those of the supposed forces of good, whom McCormick portrays as elected and military officials who are more concerned with appearances than with doing the right thing.
An engaging dark comedy rife with retribution.Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-952880-00-1
Page Count: 394
Publisher: Azoth Khem Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2022
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
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.
Jack Ryan Jr. and company race to stop a killer wave in this Tom Clancy thriller.
The ship Meridian Star departs eastern Russia unknowingly carrying a pair of containers with radioactive cesium chloride. The vessel is hijacked and scuttled in Micronesia near the Mariana Trench, and the crew is murdered. A huge insurance claim results, and Jack, an accomplished deep-sea diver who works for Hendley Associates, is there to investigate. The hostile Chinese learn it’s there and want that illicit cargo. Meanwhile, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center discovers a huge, mysterious object in 600 feet of water. At that depth, the pressure is unsurvivable without complex special equipment, which is vintage Tom Clancy. Whatever the strange object is, it’s “not a ship…not a submarine…not an aircraft.” On the side is a faded hammer and sickle and Cyrillic letters that spell Siren. Ryan teams up with Navy divers, and they look for a way to safely enter and explore the object. They discover that the underwater contraption has thermonuclear warheads attached, left and long forgotten by the USSR. If the warheads explode, they could still achieve their apparent purpose—to trigger a tsunami and destroy Guam, which is strategically important to the U.S. The Chinese know it too, and the race is on to take control. The result is plenty of high-stakes undersea action, where death can come from a bullet, a knife, or a sliced air hose. But there’s action on land, too. Navy master diver Carla Bennett and Jack take on a surprise assault in a hotel where Carla shows off stellar fighting skills—better than Jack’s. These two aren’t the only heroes here, as there’s a well-balanced cast of characters, all brave and likable. And of course—of course—where there’s a bomb, there’s a ticking clock.
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798217183166
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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