A satisfying summer thriller—but it could have been so much more.
Three British women whose friendship was forged from trauma take a luxury holiday to celebrate a divorce—but someone has a different agenda.
After defining herself for years as the perfect wife and mother, Darcy is still reeling from her recent divorce. She decides to use part of the settlement to book a luxury vacation in the Maldives for herself and her two best friends, Kate and Camilla. Theirs is no ordinary friendship; they found each other just a few years ago, tied together by their different connections to a mass slaying 22 years earlier at an English guesthouse. The culprit turned himself in and died in prison, but as the anniversary approaches, it seems that all the women have reservations about whether justice was truly served. And despite the gorgeous ocean views and the bottomless cocktails, their vacation is not lacking in drama. They befriend a young woman on her honeymoon who can’t quite conceal the bruises from her husband’s fists and a suave dance instructor who goes missing after sharing a night of passion with Camilla. Is there a link between the long-ago massacre and the current acts of violence, or are the friends stuck in the trauma of their pasts? The setup to the story—the book’s first and second acts—is exquisitely tension-filled. The novel moves among the perspectives of several characters, and their psychological layers—particularly that of the “survivor” who, in her own words, is “barely existing”—give the book a depth and complexity that belie the basic thriller structure. The third act, however, falls firmly into the realm of the sensational. True, there’s a big twist, and it’s surprising, but the superficiality of the solution and the extremity of the final action scene are disappointing after the thoughtful scaffolding.
A satisfying summer thriller—but it could have been so much more.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781668058848
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
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