A well-crafted blend of suspense, culture, and humor. Meyer is terrific.
A fast-moving South African police procedural translated from Afrikaans.
On a wintry July day, hotshot detective Capt. Benny Griessel and Capt. Vaughn Cupido take an unauthorized jump into a cash-in-transit heist and wind up nearly getting fired. They are both demoted to warrant officer and transferred from Cape Town to nearby Stellenbosch. There, they are assigned to investigate the disappearance of Calvyn “Callie” Wilhelm de Bruin, a computer genius and academic standout from a poor family. In a separate plotline, billionaire sociopath Jasper Boonstra approaches real estate agent Sandra Steenberg on an exclusive basis to sell his wine farm, Donkerdrif, in absolute secrecy. She desperately needs the commission to resolve the dire financial problems she is hiding from her beloved husband. Meanwhile, the detectives chase down clues about Callie as they reveal their own personal problems: Griessel is a so-far-so-good recovering alcoholic, while Cupido frets about his weight prior to his impending marriage—his fiancee has him eating “like a vege-fucka-tarian.” As we Yanks would watch our calorie intake, he must watch his kilojoules. “You can’t eat, and I can’t drink,” Griessel says. “We are the perfect partnership.” American crime buffs might feel a light culture shock with this story. The translator leaves in enough Afrikaans words to flavor the narrative, but the reader will occasionally ponder their meanings, as in laaitie, stompie, and fokkit (OK, we can guess that last one). And then there’s “Smack me with a snot snoek.” Eew. Griessel and Cupido are talented, brave, and funny. After Cupido eventually lays eyes on Steenberg, he notes that “she’s so hot, she gives me heat rash.” Unfortunately, Boonstra thinks so too, and therein lies a problem. What will Steenberg do to earn the commission she needs so badly? And will Callie be found alive? The plotlines are tightly knitted together, and the story ends with a nifty twist.
A well-crafted blend of suspense, culture, and humor. Meyer is terrific.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8021-5960-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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