A taut legal tale masterfully fused with a frightening portrayal of a killer.
In Manolakas’ thriller, a wrongfully accused man stands trial in London for serial murder.
Edward Kenworthy of Northumberland, England, has been killing young women for two decades. Each year, he selects a female victim, kidnaps and tortures her, and then drops her—bound and still breathing—into the North Sea. As a marquess, Edward is next in line for the dukedom; his brother, the firstborn son, died mysteriously while hunting. (Edward may not be willing to wait for his father’s death to inherit the title of Duke.) In the meantime, Edinburgh’s annual arts festival, which has become Edward’s hunting ground, is in full swing. His latest victim is more connected than he realizes; when inspectors start looking into her disappearance, Edward can only hope his typically scrupulous methods will keep him clear of any forensic evidence that may be discovered. Luckily for him, the police arrest someone else, a man who winds up on trial and declares his innocence to anyone who’ll listen to him. Manolakas zeroes in on a terrifying villain who’s a calculating psychopath: Already protected by his privilege (he’s evaded “sexual abuse complaints” on account of his lineage), Edward is painstakingly careful when committing his transgressions. The author opts for suspense over gratuitous violence—rather than lingering over what Edward does to the 19-year-old girl he targets, Manolakas focuses on how he patiently waits for a perfect opportunity to strike at the festival (“She would blossom during the hours he used her”). Along with Edward, the well-developed cast includes the wrongfully accused individual; two American friends (and potential victims) engaging in Edinburgh’s festivities; and the duke, who holds a shocking amount of contempt for his youngest son. The London-set trial takes center stage in the final act, and readers will be on tenterhooks waiting to see if an innocent man will serve time for Edward’s deeds.
A taut legal tale masterfully fused with a frightening portrayal of a killer.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781628050332
Page Count: 282
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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