A brainy, irresistible hero braves captivity to protect his family in this riveting tale.
In this novel, a Congolese teen uses his intelligence to survive among a group of vicious kidnappers that strong-arm children into becoming soldiers.
Lemba Adula and his family share a happy life in the modest village of Zange in Congo. The bright 15-year-old’s tinkering with electronics such as TVs and radios earns him the name “The Fix-It Boy.” Sadly, the Purification Army threatens Zange’s peaceful existence. These armed men force children to murder their own parents before involuntarily joining the “Purifiers.” While the villagers hide from the Purifiers during a raid on Zange, they fear the sinister group will return. Lemba and his twin sister, Josiane, feel the only way to keep their parents safe is by leaving home. They find work in Congo’s modernized capital city of Kinshasa—Josiane sings, and Lemba makes money with his computer skills. Unexpectedly, his drone-piloting aptitude catches the eyes of Purifiers, who abduct him. He has no choice but to help the group attack its enemies (often innocents) via drone assaults, especially when it uses his parents as leverage. Lemba’s predicament only turns more dire when he learns that Josiane has vanished. In this gripping story, Rothman delivers an immensely appealing young protagonist whose brisk, first-person narration teems with colorful details. Lemba describes a video game joystick as “a distant cousin of my third-hand rifle” and rubs shoulders with a street hustler that has “a built-in GPS for sleaze.” Though Lemba is unquestionably at the mercy of his captors, his adeptness at nearly everything he does makes his plight somewhat less harrowing; he even masters jujitsu from YouTube videos. Meanwhile, there are mere glimpses of the hardships that others suffer, including Josiane. Readers will nevertheless cheer Lemba as he faces off against muscular, AK-47–loving Purifiers brandishing monikers like “Demon Killer.”
A brainy, irresistible hero braves captivity to protect his family in this riveting tale.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-98518-180-7
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
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