A dark and gripping tale set on the far-right fringe.
In McMullin’s debut crime novel, a freelance photographer is caught up in a web of neo-Nazi violence.
Photojournalist Ethan McGuire takes pictures of those on the fringes of society: tattoo artists, cock fighters, spiritualists, burn victims. His current job has him tagging along with a group of white supremacists staging a rally in the Finger Lakes town of Geneva, New York. Ethan chooses this subject in part because he’s disturbed by the casual racism that permeates the suburbs of Rochester, where his daughters—10-year-old Mary and teenage Kath—live with his ex-wife, Robin. The photo shoot doesn’t go quite as planned—the skinheads are overwhelmed by protestors and, in an attempt to save one of the younger racists from getting beaten with a baseball bat, Ethan winds up striking a protester in the head with his camera. Due in part to this temporary confusion in loyalties, Ethan decides to pursue the skinheads project deeper. “The story isn’t simple because racism isn’t simple, people aren’t simple,” he tells his photo agent. “I haven’t figured out whether these are monsters wearing effective disguises or there’s a bit of a monster inside all of us.” Little does Ethan know, but he hasn’t even met the real monsters yet—the kind who rob banks and commit murders…and sometimes carry badges. McMullin documents Ethan’s journey with photographic precision, as here, where he describes a trip to a gun dealer: “Spread out on the table were the parts of a rifle…It appeared new and the oily metal surfaces were shiny in the clear morning sun. Unlike the clarity of the day, the young people looked a little bleary eyed, but still listened and watched with as much concentration as they could muster.” Though set in 2010, the novel feels particularly timely, and the perpetually zoomed-in Ethan serves as a compelling guide to this extremist subculture. One hopes that McMullin has further adventures planned for his unlikely hero.
A dark and gripping tale set on the far-right fringe.Pub Date: June 9, 2025
ISBN: 9798998786808
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Itsmine Productions
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2025
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
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
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