The emotional core and dangerous setting elevate this heart-pounding neo-noir.
In Fullilove’s thriller, a man haunted by the disappearance of his daughter agrees to investigate the death of a young woman in Uganda.
Billy Senchant is an American investigator with a reputation for successfully taking on difficult cases in Africa. When a wealthy American hires Billy to clear the name of his son, who has been named the lead suspect in the murder of a young woman named Nola, Billy agrees to travel to Uganda to investigate her death. Nola, who was working for the United Nations as a contractor, reminds Billy of his daughter, Jennifer, who went missing in Kenya two years earlier (she is presumed dead) and also worked in the aid and nonprofit field. This seems like a suicide mission—Uganda is fraught with corruption and recently ravaged by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, but Billy, diagnosed with cancer, divorced, and missing his daughter, is willing to risk it (“do you want justice? One last, heroic act, perhaps?”). When Billy arrives in Uganda, he soon discovers that things aren’t as they seem. Nola lived lavishly until her death, despite her meager pay, and seemed to have connections to an array of institutions (including the LRA). Billy’s investigation is complicated further when he meets Brooke Reynolds, a woman claiming to work for the U.S. State Department, who brings him news that his daughter might still be alive. Fullilove braids together flashbacks from the vantage of both Nola and Jennifer. This material is challenging to read—the author doesn’t hold back when describing the violent cruelty that the Lord’s Resistance Army inflicts on Nola, her family, and the children they kidnap to serve as child soldiers. Fullilove’s prose is clear and confident, and the narrative builds to a devastating final scene that renders the novel more memorable and affecting than the run-of-the-mill thriller. The politics are complicated, and can leave the reader a little disoriented, but once all the key players are established, it’s a gripping mystery built upon Uganda’s terrifying recent past.
The emotional core and dangerous setting elevate this heart-pounding neo-noir.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798891328204
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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