A crime novel that reflects its main character: It’s rough around the edges but gets the job done.
An FBI profiler pursues a new case when prominent defense lawyers start dying under suspicious circumstances in Wood’s thriller.
Two years after catching a dangerous serial killer in New Orleans, Special Agent Chris DiMeglio is now chief of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and tasked with becoming the poster boy to improve the FBI’s image with an increasingly disgruntled public. If working closely with the media weren’t already disconcerting enough, the fact that it is investigative reporter Carla Lane (whom DiMeglio finds overbearing) who calls his attention to a new potential serial killer on the loose aggravates him even more. Butonce he learns the details, it becomes clear that the connections between the murders could not be coincidental. The victim profiles speak for themselves: Several prominent criminal defense attorneys, mostly ones who have taken on cases defending the lowest, cruelest types of criminals, begin dying by apparent suicide, leaving behind extremely similar notes. When the killer contacts DiMeglio directly with text messages that indicate a hatred for lawyers, a penchant for quoting Shakespeare, and the dedication and the means to commit these murders across the globe, the profiler realizes it will take a lot of work to catch the Shakespeare Killer before more lawyers die and the FBI loses even more of the public’s esteem. The author’s second outing with DiMeglio is a standalone novel anchored by engaging tidbits about the profiling of serial killers and a competent, if troubled, hero who has an alarming proclivity to sleep with women related to his cases. At least he is self-aware: “DiMeglio wondered if he had some sort of need to get involved romantically with women who were connected to his work.” While the narrative hops around awkwardly in places, and the story at times feels dissonant as it focuses more on showcasing Tuscany’s delightful cuisine and sights than on the FBI team’s grueling search for a cold killer, this is an effective, if familiar, procedural.
A crime novel that reflects its main character: It’s rough around the edges but gets the job done.Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 979-8985856422
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Plum Bay Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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