A resilient series hero drives this tense, absorbing mystery.
In Magnani’s thriller (one in a series), a toxicologist-turned-assassin investigates climate scientists’ questionable deaths.
Dr. Lily Robinson knows her poisons and toxins, which is how she makes her U.S. government–sanctioned assassinations look natural. She’s also the perfect choice to look into scientist Daniel Williams’ death while he was scuba diving off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Though a venomous sea krait’s bite killed him, that particular snake isn’t commonly found in that area. After another scientist and her husband mysteriously die in Australian waters, it seems someone is targeting people with ties to the Climate Council, which has an upcoming conference in Brussels. Lily, on behalf of a clandestine team she’s previously worked for, investigates in Sydney, South Africa, and Belgium. She’s joined by operatives Jean Paul “JP” Marchand (who’s also her soul mate) and the mononymous Parker as she works to uncover the toxin-armed killer(s) agenda. Their mission may soon entail taking out the operatives who are hot on the killer’s trail. As in Magnani’s A Message in Poison (2022), the story teems with medical terminology and clear details about poisons and toxic plants and animals. Chapters intercut Lily’s first-person narration with third-person perspectives; this approach allows readers to identify at least one villain before Lily even has a chance. This structure also amps up the suspense, especially once the malefactor in question realizes someone is onto them. The narrative intermittently dives into Lily’s curious past as she reminisces about someone she lost decades earlier, as well as the woman who recruited her to the team. Although Lily’s toxicological expertise and professed “Spidey sense” (“Years of buried feelings have allowed me to develop an intuition that reaches deep from within”) rarely come into play in this sequel, her doggedness and all-around scientific knowledge make her an exceptional investigator. The plot rolls out a few surprises, including a doozy in the searing final act.
A resilient series hero drives this tense, absorbing mystery.Pub Date: July 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781645995258
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Encircle Publications, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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
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