A bizarre, memorable, and messy occult tale.
Years after escaping a cult, a woman rejoins the diabolical organization to take it down in this conclusion to a supernatural trilogy.
Psychologist Alina Masters and her family have led blissfully uneventful lives on the Greek island of Corfu. But when her construction worker husband takes a nasty fall, his hospital transfer sends them back to Chicago, Alina’s home. Alina may know who’s responsible for this reputed accident—her former lover Galen Drake, who belongs to the cult Ascension. She was once part of it, too, but fled the cult when pregnant with her and Galen’s child, Destin, who is now 6 years old. Craving some form of revenge against Galen, Alina squeezes her way back into Ascension. Surprisingly, Galen proposes an alliance to knock Ascension’s higher-ups, including his own mother, out of their seats of power. Alina is all for ending the cult that’s been a perpetual threat to her family. She maintains the pretense that she and Galen have reunited while struggling to ensure that Destin stays safe. But despite her previous involvement with the cult, Alina has much to learn, including that her mom has an unexpected link to Ascension as well. Bacon’s hazy plot reveals few details on the cult; even Alina doesn’t seem to know what Ascension is or its three rules (for example, “Respect the hierarchy”). But things get clearer in the latter half, and the organization’s evil, with a supernatural bend, is unmistakable throughout. The author delivers intriguing set pieces, like a potential terrorist strike and a political fundraiser for Galen, a United States senator with vice presidential aspirations, where Alina makes headlines. The book often displays a vibrant prose: Speaking with a pastor about Destin, Alina chokes out “an ugly sob, reliving the image of his tiny hands covered in blood.” Unfortunately, long-winded and occasionally repetitive sentences as well as grammatical flubs and abundant misspellings (“fain” instead of feign; “segway” instead of segue; “flea” instead of flee) permeate the narrative.
A bizarre, memorable, and messy occult tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 445
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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