A cold case mystery that proves even the grittiest of thrillers can be heartfelt.
A disgraced school psychologist becomes implicated in a girl’s disappearance in Kane’s thriller.
Dr. Juniper Pickett hasn’t been back to her hometown of Sweetbriar, Texas, in 20 years. It’s also been 20 years since quaint, rural Sweetbriar was upended by the case of a missing girl named Blair Lenox. As a teen, Juniper (called “June” by those who love her and “Junebug” by those who don’t) suffered at the hands of an unfeeling band of bullies led by Blair (“The girl [she] wished dead a thousand times”) and the unstable football star Duane Dupree. June, pushed to the breaking point, was determined to exact her revenge on the night of her graduation and the burial of the class of 1997’s time capsule, but she was thwarted by Blair’s desire to rule over all, even after graduation. Now, decades later, June’s class plans to unearth the time capsule, which contains a letter the 18-year-old June wrote, laying out her intentions. June, fleeing from a major career upset as a school psychologist in San Francisco, decides to return to Sweetbriar before the reunion, dig up the time capsule, and destroy her letter. However, her plans are thwarted once more, this time by the discovery of a major piece of evidence that blows Blair’s now-cold case wide open and implicates June as the prime suspect. Writing an enthralling and captivating thriller is a difficult task; writing a novel that effectively addresses trauma, abuse, and the long-term effects of bullying is even harder. Somehow, Kane has managed to accomplish both at once, with seeming effortlessness. June, displaying complexity and grit, echoes the style and perspective of many high school misfits who have come before her. The small-town toxicity of Sweetbriar is emotionally charged and vivid, providing an honest, unflinching portrayal of deeply ingrained community trauma. Kane deftly juggles wit, mystery, intrigue, and wholesome romance without once resorting to predictable plotting or taking the easy way out. The result is an entertaining, immersive novel that evinces a sincere understanding of the misfits of the world.
A cold case mystery that proves even the grittiest of thrillers can be heartfelt.Pub Date: March 30, 2026
ISBN: 9781733670180
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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