An exhilarating page-turner that showcases this debut author’s talent for suspense.
In Rice’s thriller, a traumatized woman’s victimizers reemerge as a looming threat.
Erin Moore-Jackson was kidnapped and tortured 20 years ago—now, the man who did it is up for parole. At the time, Erin told the police that the man, Stanley Duggan, was not alone; he conducted the torture under the direction of a woman named Veronica. The police never found Veronica, and Duggan was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Erin can’t bring herself to testify at his parole hearing and see him again. Worse still, a journalist named Richard Fitzpatrick won’t leave her alone. He harasses her and her family, revealing information in the newspaper that he obtained from Duggan himself. Erin’s marriage is on the rocks as she struggles to trust her husband, Cody, in his fight against addiction. Most of all, she fears for the safety of her daughters and wants to protect them from the kinds of horrors she has survived. Duggan gets parole after Detective Warren Osborne testifies on his behalf—Osborne is desperate to catch Veronica after all these years and is willing to use Erin as bait to do it. But Duggan goes missing, and Erin receives mysterious cards in the mail. Someone is out there who wants to hurt her, and they may be closer than expected. Rice has written a masterful debut thriller with a fantastic hero in Erin, who leaps off the page with her bravery and relatability. Erin’s trauma is believable in the ways that it influences her life and her decisions in adulthood, especially regarding her children. The threat of Duggan and Veronica feels real, and the high stakes support the fast-paced plot (“Veronica was out there, and she would be coming again, for Erin or possibly one of the girls. It was simply a matter of time”). For those who enjoy thrillers about strong women who face impossible odds, this is a terrific read.
An exhilarating page-turner that showcases this debut author’s talent for suspense.Pub Date: June 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781509255399
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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