A visionary, futuristic police procedural that buzzes with imagination and intrigue.
A veteran detective struggles to solve the defining case of his career in McBee’s novel.
The investigations of 13-year FBI special agent Juan McCormack have hit a critical roadblock. Despite the fact that he’s apprehended 12 serial killers in North America, no one on the force will acknowledge the connections he’s drawn between them. The novel is set in a future in which tech advancements allow texts and email messages to be read in one’s peripheral vision, palm-embedded keys can unlock doors, and, most notably, Consensual Visage Projectors can change a person’s outward appearance and what they view, smell, or feel. The detective thinks that someone is hacking into and manipulating CVP technology and forcing people to kill others. However, McCormack is unceremoniously fired after being framed for insubordination, and his case histories are erased. Forced to investigate the case independently, the ex-FBI agent teams up with Dominique “Dee” Fydorova, one of the only manipulated killers to survive after murdering her victim. Together with other tech experts, they sift through digital footprints, skirt police surveillance, examines code fragments and data dumps, and avoid the digital assassin trying to hijack their implants. McBee’s prose keeps up with the fierce momentum of his plot as McCormack digs deeper into the unsolved murders and scrambles to apprehend the killer before he and Dee become the next to die. The book thoroughly explores the theme of technological manipulation as the characters battle unseen digital threats and the exploitation of citizens for monetary gain. Mystery fans and tech-savvy readers will find this multilayered combination of an SF novel, a suspense yarn, and a technothriller to be a cut above others of its ilk.
A visionary, futuristic police procedural that buzzes with imagination and intrigue.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9781639889716
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.
It takes a quirky sleuth to solve a baffling closed-door murder.
The author himself or, more accurately, some version of him, walks the reader through a “gruesome murder” that occurred in a rural farming village. At the center of the crime is the wealthy Ichiyanagi family, including the widow Itoko and her five children. The “heinous crime” occurs in the evening after the festive wedding of eldest son Kenzo to schoolteacher Katsuko. Yokomizo, part narrator and part raconteur, liberally shares digressions such as the fact that his favorite British author is A.A. Milne, who wrote The Red House Mystery as well as the books about Winnie-the-Pooh. Written in 1946 but set in 1937 before the devastation of World War II, this is the first novel featuring Kosuke Kindaichi, the legendary detective who appeared in more than 70 stories by Yokomizo. If Yokomizo is the Japanese Agatha Christie, Kindaichi may seem the Japanese Hercule Poirot—although actually, given his unkempt hair and apparently distracted manner, he’s more a cross between Poirot and Columbo. Shrewdly, his entrance is delayed until midway through the novel, after the police have stalled and both the family and the reader are anxious for a solution. The narrator’s garrulous charm, in a mystery long on logistics and forensic clues but short on detailed character portraits or extended interactions, is a key to the novel’s success, leavening the more intricate pieces of the puzzle. Armchair detectives will welcome the helpful character list that precedes the story.
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781805336549
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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