An intriguing mystery, exciting thriller, and overall satisfying read.
An embattled journalist finds himself entangled in a horrific hostage situation in Catron’s novel.
Managing editorBecket Thompson has dedicated his life to thePalmetto Press, losing his marriage in the process. The paper was bought by Greene Investment Group, and with that came understaffing, a smaller salary, and layoffs. Becket stands up to the paper’s publisher, a man with familial connections within the investment group, and accuses him of being unethical and selling out, leaving him wondering if he will get fired. The day goes from bad to the absolute worst when three gunmen storm the building and take everyone hostage. The gunmen turn out to be three brothers, led by the eldest, Dalton, who easily dominates the youngest, Colton. But the middle brother, Ray, is quick to anger and could turn an already tense situation into a tragedy. Ray is frustrated by the terrible economic conditions in the United States and has turned to far-right extremism in response to his financial stress. At the beginning of the hostage situation, Ray says the brothers want “the lying media to print the truth about our president” and demands that the newspaper prints stories about how the president was “making America great again.” As the night wears on, tempers flare and Ray uses his power over the hostages to incite fear and pain while Dalton pursues his own secret agenda. Catron’s novel is an exhilarating thriller anchored by a likable hero in Becket, who, throughout the terror of the situation, tries to keep people safe. The three gunmen brothers are compelling antagonists, each with a distinct personality that leaps off the page. Their political associations give the story grounding, and the author ensures they are complex characters instead of one-dimensional strawmen. The ending is a strong combination of thrilling action and sincere dialogue that effectively completes the surviving characters’ arcs.
An intriguing mystery, exciting thriller, and overall satisfying read.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Warning: This doesn’t actually change all that much.
Driven by one of her trademark premonitions come horrifyingly true, Julia Pritzker leaves her adopted home in Tuscany to return to her Pennsylvania roots.
No sooner has Julia, seized by a sudden urge to phone her best friend, Courtney Horan, had a shattering vision than Courtney, still on the line, discovers the body of her grandmother, Kay Patterson, shot to death in her home in rural Pennsylvania. Naturally, Julia drops everything and books a flight to Courtney’s side. Who on earth would want to kill a Black octogenarian widely loved for her kindness and charity? Once the police find the presumed murder weapon—a ghost gun produced by a 3D printer—in the woods outside Kay’s house, they suspect Courtney, and Julia suspects the police. When homicide detective William Kowalski arrests Courtney, Julia decides his case is so weak that he must be racist or corrupt rather than just stupid; the only question is how far in the department the rot has spread. Back in Italy, there’s another emergency: Julia’s husband, library director Gianluca Moretti, is suspected of child abuse when their 3-year-old daughter, Leni, lapses into a mysterious grief and begs Julia to come back. But Julia, who’s already begun to suspect that Leni may have inherited some of her psychic powers, refuses and resolves to stay the course. Readers impatient with the endless wind-down of the mystery of Kay’s murder, which turns out to be the tip of a vast terrorist conspiracy, will be relieved to learn that the accusations against Gianluca are wrapped up with all due haste. The result is an ambitious whodunit, a less satisfying cold case, and a domestic drama so familiar it’s practically heartwarming.
Warning: This doesn’t actually change all that much.Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781538770030
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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