A relentlessly haunting tale that overflows with mood and style.
In Serret’s cosmic horror novel, bizarre visions and serial murders turn a museum curator’s life into utter chaos.
Archaeologist Dr. Julian Corbin, a museum curator of Ancient West Asian Art, hasn’t had much success with funding, and now Doctoranda Maaike van Leeuwen, the new associate curator of Ancient Egyptian Art, seems intent on taking over his role entirely. But Julian has more pressing things on his mind, starting with his inexplicable dream-visions; through someone else’s eyes, he experiences life in 16th-century Italy, where he is immersed in a “mystery cult.” Meanwhile, in the waking world, a serial killer has been butchering local citizens, and detectives find a potential tie to Julian. The archaeologist gets a reprieve from Maaike’s overwhelming presence at the museum when he’s hired to catalogue a private collection. His visions, however, only intensify, occurring much more frequently and shifting to an even earlier time period. This is a “puzzle” for Julian to solve—hopefully before he or anyone else gets hurt. Serret’s novel is a dizzying experience, recalling the atmospheric horror of Poe and Lovecraft. Julian’s dream-visions (or blackouts) are jarring for both readers and the protagonist; he doesn’t always know where he is when he comes out of them (“I was holding the rear door of a sedan I didn’t recognise”). The author deftly shifts the prose to depict 16th-century Italy (“I had it in my heart the countess had been despoiled thus, and my face the mask”). Mysterious characters abound, from the enigmatic “the Other” to the outright terrifying l’Avversario. For all its complexity, the story is easy to follow, even as Julian’s reality mingles with his visions. His dark path leads to at least a few answers and an unforgettable climax.
A relentlessly haunting tale that overflows with mood and style.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781734323467
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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