A devious, if occasionally melodramatic, psychological thriller.
A disturbed man searches for his missing girlfriend in Baker’s Jekyll-and-Hyde–inspired debut crime novel.
Peter Longer, the son of an abusive preacher, has another personality inside him—one he calls Jason, who tells him to do bad things—and he believes the alter ego to be a result of a family curse. The 49-year-old man also believes that he’ll die at 50, the same age that his father did; a spirit woman known as the Wren, he thinks, will come to punish him for the things he’s done. He was committed to a state institution as a teenager after killing a woman, but he managed to escape and was accepted, under a false name, to Columbia University. Later, he pursued a series of blue-collar jobs out West. Eventually, in Colorado, he strolled into a church on a snowy morning, looking for warmth, and met Sarah Montrose, a friendly young woman with a trust fund. The two fell in love and Peter found himself with a luxury apartment, a job polishing resumes, and a good woman in his life. He was convinced, in fact, that Sarah cured him of his family curse. Then, after two years of happiness, Sarah disappeared in 2016. The cops got involved, but the case quickly went cold, leaving only Peter and Richard Redd, a lone Denver police detective, committed to finding her two years later: “I continued to search for Sarah,” Peter narrates. “For without her, I was doomed. She had protected me from the cruelty, the savagery the bloodline bred into the men who carried the seed.” When Redd comes across a name related to a different murder—someone named Jason Bane—it becomes clear that the story that Peter has been telling himself may not be as straightforward as it seems.
Baker’s prose is taut and plainspoken, with shades of dirty realism that go along with the novel’s general sense of psychological unease. Here, for example, Peter stops at a drug store to tend some wounds before going to meet a single mother whom he thinks might be a suitable replacement for Sarah: “In the rearview mirror, I saw my lip had broken open again….I stopped for gauze, antiseptics, and Band-Aids. A fuzzy pink bunny sat on display at the checkout counter. Perfect for the first gift to a little girl who I hoped would grow to adore me.” The novel is mostly narrated from Peter’s perspective, although the introduction of Redd offers some much-needed respite from the protagonist’s unsettling point of view. The book has a sensationalized view of violence, rural poverty, and mental illness, and readers will be likely to spot the plot’s big twist from miles away. Even so, the mystery that unfolds over the course of the novel is somewhat more nuanced than it initially appears, resulting in a reading experience that’s chock full of reversals and complications. The faint of heart should probably stay away, but fans of dark, cerebral horror tales will likely enjoy unraveling this one.
A devious, if occasionally melodramatic, psychological thriller.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73412-982-3
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Horsetooth Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.
A widowed and disgraced plastic surgeon is drawn into a Russian oligarch’s evil schemes.
Witherspoon’s adult fiction debut, co-authored with thrillermeister Coben, opens as heart surgery performed by Dr. Marc Adams in a North African refugee camp is interrupted by the explosive invasion of armed militants. It's the last we will see of Marc in this dimension. The next chapter jumps ahead one year to a ceremony at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where his widow, Maggie McCabe, is supposed to be presenting an award in honor of her mother. Miserable and anxious about appearing in public after having lost her medical license, she consults with her late husband on her phone—not via supernatural means, but using a "griefbot," an amazingly lifelike and functional AI app created by her genius sister, Sharon. Once the griefbot coaxes her to brave the sneering masses, she learns she’s been replaced on the podium anyway. But she runs into a former professor, a celebrity plastic surgeon, who requests a meeting with her at his office in New York and won’t take no for an answer. Next thing she knows, there’s $10 million in her bank account and she’s on a private plane heading to a palace outside Moscow where she’s been engaged to perform off-the-record surgery on billionaire Oleg Ragoravich (new face) and his girlfriend, Nadia (new boobs). And…we’re off. A whirl of surgeries, chases, and escapes ensues as Maggie gradually comes to understand who these people are and what they have in mind for her, and how it connects to Marc and their missing friend and business partner, Trace Packer. She is aided by her delightful father-in-law, Porkchop, owner of a biker bar in New York City and a very handy guy to have on your team if you've run afoul of an international criminal organization. From the palace in Rublevka the action moves to Dubai and then Bordeaux, climaxing in a high-stakes illegal heart transplant. But wait—is Marc really dead? What happened to Trace? Who is Nadia really? Though these smoldering questions don’t quite catch fire, it's a good first try for Witherspoon.
Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781538774700
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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