A woman-in-peril page-turner that ambitiously explores the opposing philosophies of the characters.
A woman survives a mass shooting only to find herself forced to participate in a terrorist plot in Isenthal’s thriller debut.
An abandoned, alienated, hate-filled delinquent has a chance encounter with Flynn, a pretty waitress, who becomes the first person to ever show him kindness and respect. Ten years later, Flynn is a recruiter for the prominent Chicago-based telecommunications and technology giant Magnetic. Despite her successful and attractive exterior, Flynn empathizes with outcasts and misfits while remaining aloof to the starchy corporate organization men who insistently hit on her. Forced into an outing at Wrigley Field with co-workers, Flynn is caught in a horrific mass shooting and paramilitary attack by REDS, a vast underground conspiracy of mass murdering Nietzschean fanatics dedicated to the fall of society. (REDS is not depicted as absurdist or funny, though the group is amusingly untraceable by law enforcement.) Flynn is about to be killed by a REDS gunman when the shooter recognizes her—he is the same angry lad from 10 years earlier, taken in and groomed by REDS and renamed Wolf. Instantly smitten, Wolf violates REDS protocols and abducts Flynn, convincing his superiors that the traumatized woman must be kept alive as an asset to get Wolf hired by Magnetic and enable him to wreak epic havoc from within. The author consulted with experts on hate groups and extremism, and there are many dialogues between the virtuous heroine and her terrorist admirer about the ethics and merits of their separate worldviews (“Wake up, Flynn. You can’t solve this by sitting around in a circle holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya.’ It’s about time you come to terms with the fact that at the core, everyone is the same. They’re all selfish assholes”). The body count escalates beyond what readers may expect, and the politically inclined may be frustrated by the fact that REDS is not defined explicitly as either right-wing or left-wing, but that ambiguity may be explored in a future book, as a cliffhanger ending leaves things wide open for a sequel.
A woman-in-peril page-turner that ambitiously explores the opposing philosophies of the characters.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 979-8886450880
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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