THE WICKED STORM

A man bent on revenge tries to destroy the family who once owned his in Arnold’s thriller.

Genetics professor Elias Thorne conducts genealogical research, focusing on the Pritchard family. Elias is the descendant of enslaved people, but the Pritchards—the family who once owned his—are a thriving American dynasty. Elias’ obsession with the Pritchards leads him to spy on scion Richard Pritchard. Elias kills Richard using a toxin, evincing an eerie level of detachment; for Elias, this is just the beginning (“he felt neither guilt nor relief. Only inevitability”). He leaves his DNA at the scene, though, and a police detective named Maya Cortez is now on his trail. Elias continues to take down various members of the Pritchard family—he knows Maya is on his scent, but he’s cocky about it. The victims include a TV personality, a megachurch preacher, a hedge fund manager, a venture capitalist, an attorney, and a tech entrepreneur. Maya knows Elias is behind the murders but can’t prove it. The detective and killer engage in a pas de deux; Maya becomes almost as obsessed with stopping Elias as Elias is with murdering the Pritchards, and the killer derives a perverse enjoyment from staying a step ahead of her. Arnold’s storytelling is precise and efficient—not unlike Elias—and the author conveys a great deal of detail and action in a relatively short text. It’s unclear if readers are meant to side with or even sympathize with Elias. His rage at the injustice and horrors of slavery is justified, but the current generation of Pritchards is not responsible for it, and Elias is homicidal and ice-cold (he never wavers in his conviction, even after he’s caught). Maya is ostensibly the hero, but readers don’t get to know much about her, aside from the fact that she’s a smart detective. The story is compelling and fast-paced, but also deeply disturbing.

A tight, disquieting thriller about history, obsession, and murder.