A character-driven thriller with plenty of satisfying twists and turns.
A minister confronts the mystery of a skeleton found buried under his church and the suicide of a former congregation member in Lee’s novel, one in a series.
This second book in the Dan Randolph / Greg Zhu mystery series spins a yarn divided into two alternating timelines: The first takes place in 2024, when the Reverend Dan Randolph, hard at work overseeing Parkvale Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, is surprised by the discovery of an unidentified skeleton found in the basement in the course of plumbing renovations. When a former church member dies by suicide shortly thereafter, Dan suspects a connection and endeavors to untangle the mystery. The second thread is set in 1985, when Mark, a gay teenage church member, attempts to navigate a secret relationship with his boyfriend. All the while, he’s forced to cope with a dark secret as the adults in his life fail to protect him from abuse. When the skeleton’s identity is revealed and accusations from long ago come to light, events from both timelines converge to reveal what really happened one fateful night and various characters’ decades-long struggle to move on from it all. Each chapter opens with the name of a piece of music—mostly classical pieces meant to match the tone of the events (such as the first chapter’s “Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 3, op. 26; first movement, Andante-Allegro”) and that form a “Sinner’s Prayer playlist.” Despite some clunky dialogue and a narrative voice that occasionally dips into more “tell” than “show” (“Dan felt completely at ease. She is the most pleasant, easygoing, laid-back state trooper I’ve ever met, he thought. I’ve only just met her, but I like her”), Lee has crafted an enthralling and wide-ranging thriller that tackles a myriad of social justice themes, including LGBTQ+ rights, sexual abuse in church, and homophobia. These issues add refreshing depth to what could have been a straightforward mystery; the result spurs both intrigue and reflection.
A character-driven thriller with plenty of satisfying twists and turns.Pub Date: March 25, 2026
ISBN: 9798218702953
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Maison Laide Press
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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