A darkly tragic novel featuring a profoundly flawed antihero.
In Bird’s crime thriller, a down-and-out North Carolina cop with a drinking problem inhabits a world of dark menace and self-destruction.
Mike Lunsmann seemingly had it all, just four years prior to the opening of this grim meditation on midlife angst and alcoholism. Back then, he was a hotshot police detective in Craven County, North Carolina,with a wife who loved him and a son who didn’t yet think his dad was a total jerk. That was all washed away after Mike’s descent to the bottom of a Tennessee whiskey bottle. Now he’s a beat cop, and things take a nasty turn when he has a particularly ugly encounter with his family; if he had any hope of repairing their relationship, it’s now effectively gone. Still guided by the “Little Man” in his head “pulling all the wrong levers,” Mike is shot during another alcohol-soaked foray into the night. Awakening in a hospital bed two days later, Mike learns that the gunshot to his arm could have easily killed him. Friendly physician Harold Lasky tells him point-blank that if he doesn’t quit boozing, he’ll die. Sadly for Mike, there are even more immediate threats to his life, because the rifle bullet that pierced his arm just happens to place him in the middle of heinous murder mystery involving four teenagers. The killer’s still out there, and Mike is no shape to track them down. Still, he’s got to try. Over the course of this novel, Bird’s troubled protagonist is beset by demons from within and without. The only question is: Which is worse? That central dilemma helps to propel Bird’s drama forward. Along the way, the author packs his prose with plenty of gumshoe grit: “Next morning Mike awoke with a jackhammer headache and the taste of vomit still fresh at the back of his throat. For a long time he lay still beneath the covers, struggling to arrange whatever happened the night before into some kind of orderly account.” However, it’s his preoccupation with the complexities of his protagonist’s psychological struggles that make this thriller stand out from the pack.
A darkly tragic novel featuring a profoundly flawed antihero.Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 9798989198047
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Piper House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2024
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
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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