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FADE TO BLUE

A self-assured thriller that’s centered on intriguing medical and sociological topics.

A scientist’s attempt to cure Alzheimer’s disease makes her a target for international criminals in Scheer’s thriller.

Sarah Brenalen is a pharmacologist who oversees studies at the Memory Research Institute in Portola Valley, California. In her quest to cure Alzheimer’s disease, she’s created a drug called T-3 to test her theory that researchers can “strengthen a brain by attacking it”; her notion is that the brain will defend itself and come back stronger than before. However, her T-3 ends up destroying higher brain functions in mice and rendering them comatose. One day, as she’s jogging on San Gregorio Beach, an “older, well-dressed man” named Marcel pulls a gun on her. He wants her to drop a sample of T-3 in a fast-food restaurant’s bathroom for easy pickup. He also sneaks a tracking device onto her and gives her a phone that allows his group to eavesdrop on her life. He warns her against contact with anyone, even her boyfriend, Rogelio. Marcel later explains that he’s a Parisian working for the French government’s Direction du Renseignement Militaire to eliminate a terrorist group called Jaysh Allah, and he pays her $2 million. However, despite his explanations, Sarah is certain that he can’t be trusted. Scheer’s debut novel offers readers an engaging medical mystery, after which the plot becomes a swiftly paced thriller. The true nature of Marcel’s group remains skillfully hidden until Sarah goes to Paris herself. At that point, the author gives readers a tour of the city’s slightly lesser-known highlights, such as the Musée d’Orsay. Sometimes plot points fit together too seamlessly, such as the fact that Sarah’s interest in music recording helps her in her struggle against Marcel’s surveillance. Later, the story effectively builds a sense of menace without becoming overly explicit. Overall, Sarah is a capable and appealing protagonist, and a canny plot twist gives the narrative geopolitical heft and spurs interest in what might happen next.

A self-assured thriller that’s centered on intriguing medical and sociological topics.

Pub Date: March 14, 2023

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 279

Publisher: Top Reads Publishing

Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023

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IDENTITY UNKNOWN

Expert, but unsurprising.

The death of an old friend who was more than a friend sends Dr. Kay Scarpetta down her latest rabbit hole.

If every body tells a story, the corpse of 7-year-old Luna Briley sings the blues. On top of the many signs of ongoing physical abuse, there’s the fatal gunshot wound to her head. Ryder and Piper Briley, the wealthy and powerful parents who didn’t call the police until after their daughter died, insist that Luna’s death was an accident, or maybe a suicide. Scarpetta doesn’t think so, and her refusal to release the body to the Brileys’ hand-picked mortician moves them to legal action against her as Virginia’s chief medical examiner. You’d think it would be a relief to put this case aside for another when Scarpetta’s niece, Secret Service agent Lucy Farinelli, calls her and ferries her by helicopter to an abandoned Oz theme park owned by Ryder Briley, but this one’s even more heartbreaking. Scarpetta is there to examine the body of astrophysicist Sal Giordano, her close friend and former lover, who was evidently kidnapped, held in captivity for several hours, and tossed out of an unidentified aircraft. The leading suspects are the Brileys; Carrie Grethen, Lucy’s sociopathic ex-lover, with whom Scarpetta has repeatedly tangled in the past; and the UFO that dumped Giordano’s body without leaving the usual traces for air-traffic technologies to pick up. The multiple rounds of physical examinations Scarpetta conducts on both victims are every bit as meticulous and gripping as fans would expect; the killer’s identity is neither surprising nor interesting, but Cornwell juggles her trademark forensics, and the paranormal hints she’s become increasingly invested in, more dexterously than usual.

Expert, but unsurprising.

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024

ISBN: 9781538770382

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024

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HERE ONE MOMENT

A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?

In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either).

A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024

ISBN: 9780593798607

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024

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