A fast-paced race against time.
In Gilbert’s thriller, a retired Navy SEAL tracks down kidnapping victims and a former American special forces sniper mired in the underworld of the Philippines
At the outset of this final installment of the author’s JD Cornell Action Thriller trilogy, readers find erstwhile special forces operative Bill Taylor floundering and far from home in the Philippines. Troubled by the atrocities he has seen and committed in Afghanistan, Bill is now mostly dedicated to drinking to forget, a habit he supports by participating in underground martial arts fights. Meanwhile, back in the United States, former Navy SEAL JD Cordell is marrying the love of his life, Ellen (who also happens to be pregnant), a doctor he rescued from intense fighting in Niger. Soon after their nuptials, JD is contacted by the Spring Lotus Foundation, an organization in Thailand that aims to aid victims of the rampant sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. Two of the girls in their charge have been kidnapped by Lt. Colonel Fong, a corrupt Vietnamese civil servant with a penchant for violence and keeping sex workers. Fong is an old foe of JD’s, and he knows this kidnapping will draw the onetime SEAL back into his reach. JD sets out for the other side of the globe, unable to turn down the desperate Spring Lotus Foundation. As he seeks out both Bill Taylor (referred by a contact as a possible ally) and the missing girls, it comes to light that JD is much more personally involved in the situation than even he initially realizes: his mother, a Vietnamese immigrant living in the states, was the only family member to escape a brutal execution at the hands of Fong’s family. Gilbert’s novel is certainly well researched, as is evidenced by his descriptions of modern-day Vietnam: “They would only have to cross through Laos or Cambodia and enter Vietnam almost anywhere in the border region… It has recently become quite popular with Western tourists who now bicycle between these border countries to take photographs.” While readers looking for high-toned literary prose may not be satisfied, fans of action thrillers and military espionage will find more than enough intrigue to keep the pages turning.
A fast-paced race against time.Pub Date: March 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781734602364
Page Count: 295
Publisher: DC Gilbert & Associates
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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