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: May 29, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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