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
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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