Compelling and suspenseful, with characters and locales that often surprise.
In this novel, a crime that unfolds in Ogallala, Nebraska, has far-reaching consequences for an indecisive man and the teenage girl he befriends.
Semi-retired Bennett, a man “accustomed to mild interest” in most things, embarks on a road trip to visit ex-girlfriend Jenn in Ann Arbor after she texts him out of the blue. He’s not expecting much but brings along lubricants and lotions just in case. Jenn, however, seems more interested in Bennett’s rental car than romance. Her teen daughter, Zoe, an MMA fighter, needs a ride to Utah for an important match. Zoe’s crusty trainer, Hector, tags along, coercing Bennett into stopping at a small Nebraskan town on the way to the fight. In Ogallala, Hector and his friend Hank continue treating Bennett as a chauffeur. They ask him to give them a ride to someone’s house, and he’s ordered to wait in a corn field. Sneaking to the house, he witnesses a murder. Involvement in the crime’s aftermath makes Bennett feel alive for once, but now he’s complicit. Still, he tries to be a positive influence for Zoe, whose perspective also shifts on this trip. Briefly staying with Hank’s kind sister-in-law and kids on a farm, she sees welcome alternatives to her usual life. The sense of place plays a large role here. Eichhorn skillfully captures the small-town ambiance, at least as seen through the eyes of educated urbanite Bennett. Bennett envisions Ogallala as a place with “a rat-infested motel” and thinks the flat plains “emptiness felt like abandonment.” The town’s predominant clothing style is “bib overalls and greasy T-shirts.” Amber, the sex worker Bennett meets, has a second job at Walmart. Yet Zoe inhabits a much different Ogallala, petting a pig, noticing the high corn, eating delicious homemade pie. Like the landscape, the characters also show many sides. Though appearing shallow, Bennett actually seeks substance. Violent Hector at times encourages both Bennett and Zoe, and Hank is a proud father. Zoe is an especially convincing portrait, insecurely poised on the brink of adulthood without receiving much help in how to get there.
Compelling and suspenseful, with characters and locales that often surprise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9798891328747
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.
Second of the Walter Nash thrillers—following Nash Falls (2025)—in which the remade hero seeks vengeance.
Due to urgent circumstances, Nash has bulked himself up to become the “muscled and tatted fighting machine” now known as Dillon Hope. His antagonist is Victoria Steers, a global drug dealer who wants him dead. Not realizing his new identity, she enlists Hope to free her mother, Masuyo, from a prison in Myanmar. As an incentive, she shoots one of her associates and threatens to frame Hope for the murder unless he complies. She also wants him to find Nash. He in turn wants to kill Victoria to avenge the death of his innocent daughter, Maggie. “If I go down,” he muses, “I’m taking others with me. Starting with Victoria Steers.” He learns that Victoria had killed all her siblings to eliminate business competition. But as heartless as Victoria is, her mother, Masuyo, is even worse. In league with the Chinese government in a perverse plan to kill as many Americans as possible through fentanyl overdose, she shows contempt for Victoria for her perceived weaknesses. Readers won’t find many happy family relationships here: mother-daughter, father-son, husband-wife—all fraught. Hope’s employer, who accompanies him to Myanmar, is a billionaire chief executive with a dodgy past (i.e., probably killed his father). And there’s a mega-billionaire with an astronomical IQ and ditch-deep morals who, putting it mildly, does not have America’s best interests at heart. As a teenager, he’d defeated two world chess champions; as an adult, he regards his dealings with the world in terms of master chess moves. Only one character seems truly decent and credible—Hiroko, Victoria’s former nanny and lifelong companion, who provides Hope with valuable insights into the Steers’ background, which is partly Chinese. Searing grudges, simple evil, and not-so-simple misunderstandings carry the cast through this complex, action-packed plot. This sequel ties out the loose ends dangling in Nash Falls, which would be helpful to read first. To get to the requisite ending, though, Baldacci takes pains to surprise the reader. It works but often feels forced.
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781538758021
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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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