A well-paced and timely novel.
An international political thriller that successfully weaves together multiple storylines.
After leaving her position as a former special assistant to the White House chief of staff, Maggie Raster hopes to use her political experience as a consultant—a career that’s more in line with her deep ambitions. Then a celebratory night out ends in a sexual assault, and Maggie finds herself navigating an unexpected trauma. After an attempt to promote her new consulting career during a TV interview goes awry, she finds herself the focus of cable-news reports. Debut novelist Schorr deftly juggles multiple plotlines while anchoring the work in a fictional country known as the Kingdom, led by an ambitious crown prince who claims to be a progressive reformer. An acclaimed American journalist is murdered in the country, with all indications pointing to the prince’s involvement. The thinly veiled portrait of the real-life murder of Jamal Khashoggi may turn off some readers, but Schorr works hard to provide realistic stakes, and his depictions of social media and the cable news cycle add strong verisimilitude. The plot hinges on a controversial $20 million poker tournament that the crown prince is hosting in the hope of establishing international goodwill. The main character of the poker-related sections is former World Series of Poker champion Kyler Dawson, who, in spite of his success at the poker table, is mired in debt and divorce; in the tournament, he’s at odds with player Priya Varma, a courageous, beloved activist. Eventually, Kyler seeks out Maggie, seeing her as the only person with the skill to protect his reputation. Meanwhile, Maggie continues to handle the fallout of her assault. Much of the narrative centers on Kyler’s poker exploits, including lengthy flashbacks that will seem overlong for those not well versed in the game. Also, Kyler’s self-destructive tendencies aren’t contrasted with a deeper interiority; even when readers may wish to root for him, Kyler falls into self-pity. Nevertheless, the high stakes of a potential standoff between the United States and the Kingdom provide electrifying energy as the novel reaches its climax.
A well-paced and timely novel.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68-463107-0
Page Count: 344
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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