An intricate legal thriller revolving around the nature of the self.
In Stuart’s legal novel, a case of mistaken identity takes on a dark new meaning.
Martin Cheshire is being tried for the murder of his twin brother, Arthur. Before the trial can happen, however, the state must make sure that Martin Cheshire is Martin Cheshire—and not Arthur Cheshire, as he claims. “Perhaps the only thing the government and the defense agree on is that none of us are confident about who Mr. Cheshire is,” the prosecutor admits. “Is he Arthur, as he now claims to be, or is he Martin, as he originally admitted he was?” Complicating things further is the long history of the brothers impersonating one another—and the possibility that the man in custody, whatever his name is, may not be fully sane. It falls, in large part, to Dr. Lisbeth Socorro of Psychiatric Evaluation Services to solve this puzzle via thrice-weekly sessions conducted at a San Diego detention facility. She patiently works to draw the story out of Martin (or is it Arthur?), a story of a rough childhood living with foster parents in Portland, Maine. His story is also one of deception, embezzlement, arson, and the strange game the twins liked to play called “Hide and Be.” Stuart succeeds in capturing the distinct personalities of his characters, from the blustery judge overseeing the case to the believably psychotic twins. Here Arthur describes his experience of posing as Martin and sleeping with Martin’s girlfriend: “Once we got into it, I let her lead, like Martin said she liked. That was odd though. She was passive about a lot of things, or so he had said. But in bed, she liked to be in charge. That took all the thinking out of it for me. This was just what I wanted…” The author’s career as a trial lawyer comes through in the minutiae of the courtroom scenes, and in the attention to detail throughout. Readers will enjoy piecing together this strange mystery, which avoids the obvious twists in favor of stranger ones.
An intricate legal thriller revolving around the nature of the self.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781736894668
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Gl Stuart Enterprises
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An addictive psychological thriller.
When a mysterious novel appears on her bedside table, a successful documentary filmmaker finds herself face to face with a secret that threatens to unravel life as she knows it.
Catherine Ravenscroft has built a dream life, or close to it: the devoted husband, the house in London, the award-winning career as a documentary filmmaker. And though she’s never quite bonded with her 25-year-old son the way she’d hoped, he’s doing fine—there are worse things than being an electronics salesman. But when she stumbles across a sinister novel called The Perfect Stranger—no one’s quite sure how it came into the house—Catherine sees herself in its pages, living out scenes from her past she’d hoped to forget. It’s a threat—but from whom? And why now, 20 years after the fact? Meanwhile, Stephen Brigstocke, a retired teacher, widowed and in pain, is desperate to exact revenge on Catherine and make her pay for what happened all those years ago. The story is told in alternating chapters, Catherine's in the third-person and Stephen's in the first, as the two orbit each other, predator and prey, and the novel moves between the past and the present to paint a portrait of two troubled families with trauma bubbling under the surface. As their lives become increasingly entangled, Stephen’s obsession grows, Catherine’s world crumbles, and it becomes clear that—in true thriller form—everything may not be as it seems. But how much destruction must be wrought before the truth comes out? And when it does, will there be anything left to salvage? While the long buildup to the big reveal begins to drag, Knight’s elegant plot and compelling (if not unexpected) characters keep the heart of the novel beating even when the pacing falters. Atmospheric and twisting and ripe for TV adaptation, this debut novel never strays far from convention, but that doesn’t make it any less of a page-turner.
An addictive psychological thriller.Pub Date: May 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236225-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
