An absorbing kidnapping tale inspired by true life and steeped in bleakness.
In this thriller, the shady past of a New Zealand journalist-turned–aspiring-novelist provokes his young daughter’s abduction.
Someone is watching writer Will McCormick on his property, where he lives with his wife, Maddy, and their two daughters. He subsequently receives two messages, both likely scrawled in blood: “LIAR” on a scrap of paper tied to a fence post and “AN EYE FOR AN EYE” on a mirror in his house. He knows these are threats stemming from his past. Years ago, in 2000, Will was a war correspondent in Cambodia. That’s where he met Bill Bradley, who ultimately convinced Will to become a CIA asset, with Bill as his handler. This proved beneficial to Will’s journalism career, but it was his Pulitzer Prize–winning story that changed everything. Events in his article didn’t happen quite the way he reported them, which may have amped up two countries’ serious conflict. In 2016 Queenstown, those two threats that Will discovers become all too real when someone kidnaps his oldest child, 5-year-old Lizzy. The abductors seem to be out for revenge, wanting Will to confess his apparent lies. As he’s hesitant to relay his dreadful history to the local authorities, Will goes out on his own to rescue Lizzy and stumbles on a few shocking—and unwelcome—truths. Eaton heavily ties his fictional story to real-world events, most notably 9/11. He manages this shrewdly and respectfully: Will is essentially an outsider, feeling sympathy for the victims of the 9/11 tragedy and witnessing firsthand America’s aggressive response. The book is understandably grim, as Will’s relentless guilt largely propels his first-person narrative. He also has his faults, including that he’s been unfaithful to Maddy. The story is swift and taut even as it details vibrant surroundings, such as Paris’ charcoal-colored, red- and gold-streaked sky. By the final act, Will has a revelation or two that some readers will predict, but the coda is one that reverberates.
An absorbing kidnapping tale inspired by true life and steeped in bleakness. (acknowledgements)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-08-213466-1
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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