A richly atmospheric, genre-blending mystery that balances historical depth with modern intrigue.
Perry’s mystery incorporates ecclesiastical intrigue, queer love, and centuries-spanning secrets.
Newly arrived from San Francisco, couple Lee Maury and Adriano Llata de Miranda settle into the Italian hill town of Orvieto for a sabbatical meant to provide healing after the death of their friend Brian. But their quiet retreat is soon interrupted by a mysterious suicide of a deacon, cryptic clergy, and Vatican secrets buried for centuries. “Who knows what we’ll find here,” Lee muses early on in an ominous foreshadowing of the dark revelations to come. Perry deftly intertwines timelines (alternating between present-day Orvieto and the post–Sack of Rome papacy of Clement VII), offering readers a blend of rich history and contemporary suspense. The author’s reverence for the setting is clear: “Orvieto didn’t so much dominate the surrounding countryside as preside over it with a stone-hewn patience girded by over three millennia of human habitation.” The narrative drips with atmosphere, from the chill of “late-autumn, prewinter breeze” to the candlelit corners of ancient churches. Lee and Adriano’s relationship is portrayed with warmth and familiarity, offering levity and intimacy amid the mystery. Their banter (“I’m not a closeted anything, as you well know,” Lee quips) brings relatable humanity to a plot otherwise dense with papal history, ecclesiastical politics, and esoteric symbols. (The author allows their queerness to be present without sensationalism; their love is simply a fact, not a device.) One of Perry’s greatest strengths is his characters: From the gregarious expat food writer Peg (“White wine, si?” she demands, already ordering for the table) to the coldly formidable cafe matron La Donna Volsini, each is rendered with theatrical flair and narrative purpose. While the plot occasionally slows under the historical exposition, the mystery remains taut, with surprising emotional resonance: “Brian,” Lee whispers to his husband as they place his late mentor’s ashes in a bookcase in one of several quiet, aching moments that elevate this novel beyond a mere Vatican thriller.
A richly atmospheric, genre-blending mystery that balances historical depth with modern intrigue.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 9780941936064
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Pace Press
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2025
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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