A promising setup about a defense lawyer facing her own limitations bogs down in obvious clues.
A former defense attorney comes out of retirement when her husband is charged with six murders.
Leslie Woodhouse is enjoying an early retirement in a beachfront Florida condo, whiling away the days with her companionable second husband, Robert, a former college art professor. She doesn’t much miss her career as a defense lawyer somewhat notorious for finding loopholes for her clients, but she’s thinking about it more as a story unspools in local news. Someone the media has dubbed the “Gulf Coast Killer” has abducted six people in towns near the beaches, apparently imprisoning them until they die of starvation and dehydration, then dumping the bodies. But the latest case is different: A 40-year-old woman was grabbed from the beach near Leslie and Robert’s home. She hasn’t been found, but her 8-year-old daughter got away—after getting a look at the abductor. Leslie has other things to worry about, though: Her beloved daughter, Stephanie Tressler, is off at her first year of college, and Leslie’s wealthy, flamboyant, but down-to-earth sister, Patricia Colton, has been diagnosed with cancer. Leslie also frets about Robert’s only family, his estranged son, Weston Adekins. The young man was born after Robert had a one-night stand with a student, and Weston fairly seethes with anger at Robert’s almost total absence from his and his mother’s lives. Leslie’s attention is forced to a focus when Robert is arrested and charged with the Gulf Coast Killer murders. The slight, mild-mannered 62-year-old seems an unlikely suspect, but the police make a serious case. The book has some suspenseful elements and makes skillful use of alternating first-person points of view. But the identity of the killer is clear early on, which makes maintaining suspense difficult. Some plot points stretch credulity: Would a court really permit a lawyer to defend her own spouse in a murder case? And a climactic chase brings some surprises but goes on so long it ends up dead in the water.
A promising setup about a defense lawyer facing her own limitations bogs down in obvious clues.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781668208656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.
Jack Ryan Jr. and company race to stop a killer wave in this Tom Clancy thriller.
The ship Meridian Star departs eastern Russia unknowingly carrying a pair of containers with radioactive cesium chloride. The vessel is hijacked and scuttled in Micronesia near the Mariana Trench, and the crew is murdered. A huge insurance claim results, and Jack, an accomplished deep-sea diver who works for Hendley Associates, is there to investigate. The hostile Chinese learn it’s there and want that illicit cargo. Meanwhile, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center discovers a huge, mysterious object in 600 feet of water. At that depth, the pressure is unsurvivable without complex special equipment, which is vintage Tom Clancy. Whatever the strange object is, it’s “not a ship…not a submarine…not an aircraft.” On the side is a faded hammer and sickle and Cyrillic letters that spell Siren. Ryan teams up with Navy divers, and they look for a way to safely enter and explore the object. They discover that the underwater contraption has thermonuclear warheads attached, left and long forgotten by the USSR. If the warheads explode, they could still achieve their apparent purpose—to trigger a tsunami and destroy Guam, which is strategically important to the U.S. The Chinese know it too, and the race is on to take control. The result is plenty of high-stakes undersea action, where death can come from a bullet, a knife, or a sliced air hose. But there’s action on land, too. Navy master diver Carla Bennett and Jack take on a surprise assault in a hotel where Carla shows off stellar fighting skills—better than Jack’s. These two aren’t the only heroes here, as there’s a well-balanced cast of characters, all brave and likable. And of course—of course—where there’s a bomb, there’s a ticking clock.
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798217183166
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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