A satisfying thriller with enough history and mysteries to keep readers enthralled until the end.
In this novel, a graduate student discovers a puzzling codex in a university library.
The year is 1969, and graduate student Simon Hannay is working on his master’s thesis in comparative literature at Van Dyne University while teaching karate. In the library’s rare book room, he stumbles across a 16th-century codex (a handwritten book) with “paper pages…bound after a fashion, by a method known as stab sewing, which involves poking holes through the entire thickness.” Apart from one paragraph in Portuguese, the codex appears to be written entirely in code. With the help of his newfound Brazilian friend, Gabriela, Simon decides that cracking the code will become his new thesis topic. He soon discovers that the codex was written by Portuguese fortune hunter Vicente Marques, who discovered a plant with miraculous healing powers. But Simon isn’t the only one interested in the codex. The original soon disappears, and the copy that Simon handed over to his adviser, professor Espinoza, vanishes after the professor is drugged by a blond “mystery man” lurking on campus. The closer Simon and Gabriela get to uncovering the secrets of the codex, the more danger they face. The twisty tale’s central mystery is presented in a way that invites the audience to join in. Readers are shown excerpts of the codex, and at certain points, they have more information than Simon himself. While the prose can become a bit bogged down by inconsequential details (the university’s fraternity hazing rituals, for example), Blackwood maintains a steady pace toward a compelling conclusion. There are plenty of subplots to keep things intriguing as well, including questions about Simon’s father’s death and Gabriela’s heartbreaking secret. The backdrop of the Vietnam War also looms large as Simon becomes increasingly drawn into the conflict between the war’s protesters and supporters on campus.
A satisfying thriller with enough history and mysteries to keep readers enthralled until the end.Pub Date: June 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1684339501
Page Count: 297
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.
It takes a quirky sleuth to solve a baffling closed-door murder.
The author himself or, more accurately, some version of him, walks the reader through a “gruesome murder” that occurred in a rural farming village. At the center of the crime is the wealthy Ichiyanagi family, including the widow Itoko and her five children. The “heinous crime” occurs in the evening after the festive wedding of eldest son Kenzo to schoolteacher Katsuko. Yokomizo, part narrator and part raconteur, liberally shares digressions such as the fact that his favorite British author is A.A. Milne, who wrote The Red House Mystery as well as the books about Winnie-the-Pooh. Written in 1946 but set in 1937 before the devastation of World War II, this is the first novel featuring Kosuke Kindaichi, the legendary detective who appeared in more than 70 stories by Yokomizo. If Yokomizo is the Japanese Agatha Christie, Kindaichi may seem the Japanese Hercule Poirot—although actually, given his unkempt hair and apparently distracted manner, he’s more a cross between Poirot and Columbo. Shrewdly, his entrance is delayed until midway through the novel, after the police have stalled and both the family and the reader are anxious for a solution. The narrator’s garrulous charm, in a mystery long on logistics and forensic clues but short on detailed character portraits or extended interactions, is a key to the novel’s success, leavening the more intricate pieces of the puzzle. Armchair detectives will welcome the helpful character list that precedes the story.
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781805336549
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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