A measured but diverting medical spy thriller.
In Magnani’s third series entry, pathologist and government assassin Lily Robinson finds herself hot on the trail of a poisoner.
Lily, who works as a consultant at a Boston medical school, uses her toxicological skills assassinations in her secret job as an assassin for “The Agency.” Now her case officer has paired her with a forensic pathologist to investigate a U.S. senator’s death, which initially seems to be the result of natural causes. Signs of a lethal poison reveal a murder—one that shares similarities with that of a politician in the fictional Eastern European country of Jokovikstan. It turns out that Lily’s Agency partner and soulmate, Jean Paul Moreau Marchand, is investigating the latter crime, but the pair are still cooling off from a previous argument, which may be why she later finds the allure of another colleague so tempting. She eventually traces the poison (and poisoner) to the Middle East, but it’s clear that someone is trying to cover their tracks. Lily soon switches to assassin mode when the suspect she’s after threatens someone she loves. The dialogue in Magnani’s deliberately paced novel features plenty of medical jargon and toxin specifics, which showcases the pathologist/toxicologistauthor’s expertise in these areas, although some readers may wish that there was a bit more explanation at times. The characters, however, are well developed, drawing on series-established backstories. Lily, for example, deals with a shocking, recent discovery that her daughter, whom she believed died 20 years ago, is alive and attending the school where she works. The fine supporting cast includes another person who was thought to be deceased, and Lily’s friend John Chi Leigh, a Hong Kong chemist and fellow assassin. The narrative perspective shifts as the story goes on, but Lily’s point of view is always the most relaxed. The action picks up moderately in the final act and the ending leaves things open for another series installment.
A measured but diverting medical spy thriller.Pub Date: April 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64599-325-4
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Encircle Publications, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence.
A series of mounting complications leads to yet another fight to the death between the discarded intelligence agents of Slough House and the morally bankrupt head of MI5.
As Jackson Lamb’s motley crew on Aldersgate Street struggles to cope with the deaths of River Cartwright’s grandfather and mentor, intelligence veteran David Cartwright, and their dim, beloved colleague Min Harper, new troubles are brewing. Diana Taverner, who runs the British Intelligence Service from Regent’s Park, is being blackmailed by former MP Peter Judd to do his bidding. Nothing untoward about that, of course, but this time, Judd’s demands, backed by a compromising tape recording, are more pressing than usual. So Diana reconvenes the Brains Trust—Al Hawke, Avril Potts, Daisy Wessex, and their ex-boss Charles Cornell Stamoran—whose last assignment was to serve as the contact for psychopathic IRA informant Dougie Malone while turning a blind eye to his multiple rapes and murders, which were really none of the Crown’s business. Taverner’s new assignment for the Brains Trust is the assassination of Judd. Since all these developments are filtered through the riotously cynical lens of Herron’s imagination, nothing goes as planned, and when the smoke clears, the fatalities don’t include Judd. Now that Judd knows he has as much reason to fear Taverner as she does to fear him, Lamb offers to broker a peace meeting between them which Slough House computer geek Roddy Ho will keep secret by knocking out 37 security cameras around Taverner’s dwelling. What could possibly go wrong?
The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781641297264
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Soho Crime
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
