Resonant characters propel this consistently gripping terrorist tale.
In this debut thriller, a Navy SEAL tries to uncover a terrorist plot.
Rahman Atta has a deep-seated animosity toward Americans, blaming them for murdering his father and uncle, both Islamic radicals. He’s cooking up a plan that initially entails getting a president in his pocket. With a United States election coming up, Atta offers to fund Josephine Warren-Brookstone’s campaign. The presidential hopeful has been doing well but is almost out of money and accepts Atta’s contributions. The candidate does not know her benefactor’s true identity. The alarming second part of Atta’s plan involves deadly weapons. When the CIA finds a possible link between Warren-Brookstone and terrorists, Atta sends assassin Fatima Hadhari to kill a few agents. But one of those potential targets is analyst William Peterson, whose childhood friend is martial arts–trained Navy SEAL JD Cordell. The SEAL’s involvement ultimately puts him and his parents, Curtis and Mai, in danger. Will JD discover the details of Atta’s scheme before it’s too late? Gilbert’s action-oriented tale is dense with characters and personal histories, resulting in narrative stretches without the formidable JD. But the myriad subplots and backstories are often enthralling. The book’s opening chapters take place during the Vietnam War and feature JD’s parents. In Vietnam, Mai aids a lost and injured American soldier, Lt. Curtis Cordell, and subsequently guides him to a military outpost. All of the story’s characters are well developed, producing genuine shocks when certain individuals die. The author writes in an unadorned prose that keeps the plot moving at a steady beat. There’s quite a bit of violence, and despite the tale not lingering on bloodier moments, a few stand out in their sheer ferocity. Although readers will likely anticipate an ending action scene—featuring a confrontation between two key players—the finale is still exhilarating.
Resonant characters propel this consistently gripping terrorist tale. (acknowledgements, author’s note, author bio)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-96131-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2020
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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