An action-packed tale of organized crime and familial ties.
A man allows his job as a bookie to affect the lives of his daughter and granddaughter in Harding’s novel.
Donnie “The Book” Chariot is a genius with numbers. His affinity for calculating probability has made him a legendary bookie covering the action on horse-race betting. Unfortunately, Donnie has early-onset Alzheimer’s, and he cannot determine the likelihood of a given outcome as easily as he once could. When his clients start complaining that they are losing money as a result of his bad picks, Donnie tries to enlist the help of his daughter, Donna—who shares a similar gift for mathematics—to help him in his work. Initially, due to their strained relationship, Donna refuses, only capitulating after her own daughter, Alexis, is kidnapped. Later, another pair of goons home in on Alexis’ kidnapping—this escalates the situation, leading to Donna's inadvertently teaming up with her father’s henchmen, Frank and Nicky, in a race to get her daughter back. Though the numbers and the degree of detail pertaining to gambling on horses may be a bit niche for some readers, the author’s tale has no shortage of thrills and drama to balance the more obscure material out. The strongest sections of the narrative are the rawer moments between characters, including Donna’s attempts to discuss her horrific childhood memories with her father (“You should have let all this lunacy go a long time ago. Tried being a husband or, I don’t know, maybe something real exotic, like a dad”). Similarly, Nicky’s feelings for Donna add depth to his character, elevating him above the level of some anonymous gangster underling. Harding’s prose is accessible and fast-paced though not particularly descriptive. There are a few too many characters, many of whom have very similar names, which can be confusing and make the story feel a bit cluttered at times. Aside from this minor flaw, the narrative is a well-crafted offering for lovers of crime thrillers and is a unique take on the typical gangster tale.
An action-packed tale of organized crime and familial ties.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781685132927
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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