Vengeance and plot surprises culminate in a masterful finale.
In 1970s Paris, an American part-time spy finds himself caught between two revenge plots.
Brad James is aware enough of his own shortcomings to avoid stupid mistakes and confident enough in his skills to be successful both as a working musician in the Paris nightclub scene and as an undercover asset for the CIA. In that second vocation, he appears to be a magnet for violence. After the heir to the powerful Pomero family, a Honduran crime syndicate, is kidnapped, tortured, and killed, the family’s patriarch wastes no time taking vengeance on all those connected to the murder of his son. Pomero and his small army travel to Paris in search of the two remaining conspirators, known only as Cariño and Amy. Meanwhile, Brad’s enlisted to solve the murder of an American intelligence agent who was investigating a terrorist plot aiming to murder millions. Inside this geopolitical strike against capitalism lies a strand of personal vengeance that, when tugged, pulls in Pomero, his estranged daughter, and Brad as well. By the time the terrorists’ aims are understood, it’s apparent that an insider is trying to guide Brad and his Vietnam vet mentor Chuck to stop the catastrophe. The bodies pile up where these plots converge, and Brad thinks he’s in the middle of “two different movies coincidentally using some of the same actors.” He’s not too far off. When can an enemy be trusted, and when is a friend a friend in name only? Here the story knots up, holds tight, and slips loose in some ingenious twists. On the other side of those plot twists, the story takes on a new shape that becomes as much about personal identity and how it’s formed as it is about revenge—an intriguing mix that concludes with a satisfying conflagration.
Vengeance and plot surprises culminate in a masterful finale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781632996718
Page Count: 350
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
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
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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