An intricate drama offering a critical view of political self-interest.
A freshman U.S. senator contends with his former mentor’s plan to launch an alternative currency in this second installment of Spencer’s thriller series.
Ethan Scott, in his New York City office as a rising leader of the Citizens’ Mandamus Council, is surprised to get a visit from U.S. Sens. Hubert Riley and John Stanton. These men are the type of suspect power brokers that CMC seeks to expose, but Ethan ultimately decides to accept their offer to appoint him to a vacant Senate seat, musing to himself, “If I possessed their influence, I could do so much more.” He advances at a fast clip in the Senate and the “Bone Yard” of Washington, D.C., gaining majority leader status and the pro tempore post. These promotions are largely brought about via Riley’s evil maneuverings as he seeks to lure Ethan into the world of secret favors and corruption. Meanwhile, CMC founder David Samuel, disheartened and angry about a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against his organization, announces his intention to offer a new type of currency and force a special election to drive out the current Congress. Ethan also struggles with his love-hate relationship with opportunistic lobbyist Anne Preston, who works for one of two major oil barons funding terrorists as part of their domination of the energy market. News anchor Abigail Sanders also renews contact with Ethan, with whom she shares history and mutual attraction. By novel’s end, several players are dethroned, tortured, or die, and Ethan is mobilized to rejoin CMC in part by revelations by mysterious D.C. homeless man Seneca.
Spencer ambitiously weaves many threads into this multilayered tale of rampant, interconnected malfeasance. Some elements, such as a government bill connected to a space mission, are rather sketchy and digressive even if there will be more to come on such topics in future series installments. Seneca, a minor-character sage without a home, is rather surprisingly hurriedly hustled out of D.C. early on, and it’s left unclear when (or if) this eponymous character will return to this series. Most significantly, characters’ belief in CMC as a noble crusading force is a bit problematic given its huge endowment, its willingness to create havoc by manipulating the use of money, and David’s egotistical rage and despair. The most compelling and successful aspect of this novel is the depiction of Ethan’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington–like year as a senator. Here, Spencer provides plenty of sadly astute and sometimes-amusing commentary, including Ethan’s wry realization that politicians’ seeming inability to get anything done may be intentional. Ethan’s attraction to Anne, introduced in the previous book, continues to have a noirish appeal, with some intriguing new dimensions provided about her underlying pain. Spencer also sprinkles some metaphysical flavor into the mix, beginning and ending the book with key characters haunted by a menacing, armored figure—if only, perhaps, in their own minds. These existential elements will whet readers’ interest in what’s to come: an apparent apocalyptic showdown between good and evil. An intricate drama offering a critical view of political self-interest.Pub Date: March 1, 2023
ISBN: 9798985773507
Page Count: 426
Publisher: Spencer Publishing & Media
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
This thriller’s eerie mood is deflated by a plot with more holes than a Halloween sheet.
Could making a movie about the disappearance of five women from an island reawaken an evil presence there?
Five dresses hang from the topmost limbs of an oak on a remote island in a Vermont lake. That memorable image marks a mystery from a century ago, when five women believed to have been part of a commune vanished forever. As this novel opens, another group gathers on the island to make a movie based on that tale. Marin Keane, the narrator, is surprised but thrilled to find herself cast as one of the leads; she’s a struggling actor whose biggest part so far has been “Bridesmaid with Eczema” in a drug commercial, so playing Daisy Rue, whose haunting diary is the basis for the movie’s script, could be a career-making move. Ronan Peters, the writer-director, is talented and, Marin notes, hot. His reason for gathering the cast on the island is a kind of boot-camp rehearsal: They’ll spend a week living there, wearing period clothes, and managing without internet or phone service. Oh, and holding séances. What could go wrong? Marin quickly meets the other women in the cast: regal character actor Julianne Brown, cool and competent Heather Benchley, bratty former Disney star Susie Hutchinson, and, striking awe in all of them, Violet Wright, a much-awarded Meryl Streep-ish figure who will play the woman who brought the others to the island, which she owned. They get to work, but soon enough someone disappears. The book’s plot, like the movie’s script, largely follows Daisy’s journal, and since the reader is supplied with pages-long sections of that journal, there’s not much suspense about what will happen next. There are some effective set pieces, such as the group’s first séance. But in its last quarter, the plot collapses into a muddle of #MeToo vengeance, improbable secrets, and jarring character reveals that is, as Marin says, “the most Scooby-Doo thing I’ve ever heard.”
This thriller’s eerie mood is deflated by a plot with more holes than a Halloween sheet.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798217044092
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
