A plausible, but flawed, thriller that will both entertain and frustrate.
In Roy’s thriller, a CIA agent stationed in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War is targeted by more forces than one.
In the summer of 1995, CIA agent Mick Caruso collects intel so NATO can end the war by stopping Serbian forces from invading Sarajevo. Mick becomes romantically involved with Maja Marković, a beautiful and intelligent Bosnian woman whose Serbian husband, Borislav, died in a bombing three years prior while on a playground with their 3-year-old daughter, Anja, who survived the attack. They share a love of music and the experience of being parents made single by traumatic means: Mick has a 5-year-old daughter named Katie and is in the middle of acrimonious divorce and custody proceedings with his abusive, unstable, and narcissistic ex-wife, Sybil. Maja is the executive assistant of Colonel Nedžad Ugljen, the deputy director of the Bosnian intelligence and security service, who the CIA suspects is involved with Iranian forces. Mick, directed by the CIA, recruits Maja as an inside informant. The risk Maja faces is enormous, and it’s not just her own safety. Anja, who’s now 6, and Maja’s parents’ lives would also be in jeopardy. Eager for the war to end, Maja agrees to help Mick, but the pace of war is fast. Before Mick is able to properly train Maja, she discovers key pieces of evidence, including plans to kidnap, torture, and execute Mick, putting her own life in danger yet again. In his latest novel, Roy presents a fast-paced historical thriller about espionage, love, and loyalty. With the backdrop of the Bosnian genocide, the appearance of historical figures like Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, and the author's own background in intelligence, the story is plausible and colored with rich details, including CIA codenames. The author’s clean prose keeps the story moving, and readers might be amused by a wink-and-nudge reference to present-day American politics. The concept is compelling, but an early twist eliminates potential character arcs and conflict, which may significantly reduce readers’ interest. Frequently awkward dialogue and underdeveloped female characters (of which there are few) don't help.
A plausible, but flawed, thriller that will both entertain and frustrate.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2026
ISBN: 978-1972090916
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Manhattan Book Group
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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