An intriguing but uneven revenge tale.
In this novel, a Navy SEAL seeking a Russian assassin who murdered his father gets drawn into a political conspiracy in Kenya.
While visiting his diplomat father, Rodney, in Tokyo in 1975, Tommy Williams witnesses him shot to death. The grim moment elicits this response: “I don’t know who you are or why you did this, but I am coming for you.” Tommy doesn’t have much to go on—he receives information that his father, the American ambassador to Japan, may have been killed by a Russian hit man known only as “The Chameleon.” Nevertheless, Tommy remains undaunted and forgoes his plans to attend law school and become a JAG attorney to train as a SEAL instead. Meanwhile, Makena Aalee attempts to persuade the Kenyan government to crack down on the slave trade conducted in the country by Arab traffickers, a cause for which her great-grandfather Tumaini Aalee, widely known as “The Legend,” became famous. Makena becomes an important public figure, but powerful forces within her own government—including President Daniel Arap Amoi—oppose her efforts and plot against her. Makena, her two daughters, and her husband, Bosher Arachar, are kidnapped by The Chameleon. The assassin plans to use her as a pawn to compel Kenya to align itself with the Soviet Union. In this action-packed prequel, Hendrickson deserves great credit for the eccentric quirkiness of making the Kenyan slave trade a key ingredient. But the author follows the unlikely intersection of Tommy’s and Makena’s lives—both share a common enemy in The Chameleon—resulting in a story as melodramatic as it is implausible. At its core, this is a tale about an angry SEAL. In addition, the author’s writing is often leaden, making the novel a bumpy read. And the work offers few authentic characters; The Chameleon, in particular, seems like a pastiche of comic-book villains. At one point, he delivers this line: “I should have killed you with your father, Tommy Williams. We’ll meet again, my friend, I promise.”
An intriguing but uneven revenge tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 979-8985442526
Page Count: -
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
Fast-moving and disturbingly plausible.
Robots may be the future of warfare in this final father-son DeMille collaboration.
In Camp Hayden, Army Maj. Roger Ames is found dead, his skull crushed. Chief Warrant Officers Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, special agents of the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division, are sent to the Mojave Desert, “a.k.a. in the middle of nowhere,” to investigate. In this fictional military installation, Army Rangers conduct field training exercises with lethal autonomous weapons. These “dangerous new toys,” nicknamed “tin men,” may become the future of warfare if they can be programmed to distinguish between friend and foe. Anyway, the Rangers’ job is to train the tin men, not the other way around. They are AI-driven robotic prototypes called D-17s, but even prototypes can kill. Did a bot kill the major? And was there criminal liability or intent, or was it a tragic accident? Brodie and Taylor discover that not everyone loves these beasts, and they must find out if humans are programming them for mischief or even trying to set up the program for failure. Meanwhile, the bots have nicknames. Bot number 20 is Bucky, seen on a video as a “seven-foot-tall titanium machine with hands covered in blood and brain matter” that has “a face but no eyes, with hands but no skin, with a body but no soul.” As scary as these beasties are, Brodie and Taylor must also look at the humans at Camp Hayden, because they learn that the “machines don’t have motives….They have inputs and outputs,” which naturally come from human programmers. They have neither brains nor courage nor honor; they do have brute force, speed, and agility. Obviously, plenty goes haywire in this enjoyable yarn. It feels a bit too believable for comfort, and that’s to the DeMilles’ credit as storytellers. Nelson DeMille had begun this project with his son Alex, who had to finish it alone after his father’s death.
Fast-moving and disturbingly plausible.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781501101878
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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