A fast-moving, character-driven thriller that thrives on wit, danger, and the uneasy sense that everyone is hiding something.
In Huddle’s mystery novel, a sharp-tongued investigator barrels into a case where deception is currency and survival is not guaranteed.
Iris Raines, a seasoned private investigator with a razor-sharp instinct for deception, is drawn into a volatile case involving a struggling restaurant chain and a string of escalating sabotage incidents at an over-the-top Texas ranch. What initially appears to be a corporate dispute quickly deepens into something far more unpredictable as Iris begins to question the evidence and the people behind it—especially the client whose desperation may be masking something far more complicated. From the outset, Iris frames her world with hard-earned clarity: “Don’t lie to your PI.” That guiding principle shapes her every move, informing how she reads people, evaluates risk, and navigates the blurred lines between loyalty and truth. Her voice carries the story with confidence—dry, observant, and often laced with humor—grounding even the most extreme situations in a sense of lived-in realism. As the investigation progresses, the tension builds steadily. Routine surveillance at the ranch leads to a life-threatening encounter, shifting the tone from methodical inquiry to urgent survival. The moments of action are tightly rendered, placing Iris in situations where instinct and experience are all that stand between her and disaster. The contrast between quiet investigative work and sudden violence keeps the pacing dynamic and engaging. Beyond the central mystery, Iris’ personal connections add depth. Her bond with her dog, Festus, provides both emotional resonance and a sense of stability amid chaos, while her interactions with her family and professional circle hint at a layered past that informs her resilience. These relationships enrich the narrative, offering glimpses into what drives the protagonist. The setting reinforces the themes of excess and illusion—the lavish ranch, with its extravagant and almost absurd details, serves as an ideal backdrop for a story rooted in greed, secrecy, and shifting allegiances. Appearances rarely align with reality, and Iris must constantly reassess what—and whom—to believe.
A fast-moving, character-driven thriller that thrives on wit, danger, and the uneasy sense that everyone is hiding something.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
More than any of his earlier cases, the comatose hero’s 26th adventure bears the hallmarks of a formal detective story.
Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett has been shot plenty of times before. But this time may be the last.
As Joe hovers between life and death in a Billings hospital, Box indicates that Dorn Peddy and James Dale O’Bryan are the two men who ambushed him, shot him, and left him for dead. But he doesn’t reveal who hired them or why. That’s left up to Joe’s three daughters: bird-abatement firm chief executive Sheridan, Bozeman private eye April, and University of Wyoming undergrad Lucy. Since the man who reported the incident to the Twelve Sleep County Sheriff’s Department has disappeared, the most that newly appointed Sheriff Steve Sondergard can do is to warn Sheridan and her sisters away from the case. But the fact that both the shooters and the witness seem to have come from one of exactly three places presents an obvious appeal to the younger Picketts, who plan to each visit one place and question the owners simultaneously before they can warn each other that anyone’s coming. The only problem is that all the possible suspects—billionaire Michael Thompson and his wife, Brandy, of the Double Diamond Ranch; ranchers John and Shelby Bucholz, of the Bucholz Cattle Company; and secretive sisters Lisa and Lainie McElwee, of McElwee Land and Cattle Ranch—act equally guilty. As Box unspools a series of flashbacks showing what Joe was up to in the weeks before the ambush, one question assumes paramount importance: Can Joe’s daughters identify which of them is behind the plot to murder their father before the hired gunmen visit the hospital and try again?
More than any of his earlier cases, the comatose hero’s 26th adventure bears the hallmarks of a formal detective story.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780593851098
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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