Powerful, violent, and engrossing.
The Vietnam War rages as American operatives conduct secret missions in this military thriller.
In 1968, Navy SEAL Tom Reece is part of Recon Team Havoc in the highly classified Military Assistance Command, Vietnam—Studies and Observations Group, or MACV-SOG. They fight America’s covert war in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. But too much is going wrong—too many people are getting killed in the ops—and Reece believes there’s a mole back at military headquarters. Indeed, the Soviets are using military intelligence to undermine the U.S. war effort. They get unwitting help from an American National Security Agency employee who thinks it’s safe to share secrets with his West German lover and from North Korea’s capture of the spy ship USS Pueblo. Moscow’s mission is to stall U.S. involvement in Vietnam. They want to capture Americans and interrogate them in Siberia. Targeting MACV-SOG, they send in serial killer Adrik Voronin, who finds his calling as a KGB assassin. He’s a vicious beast and is responsible for one of the most graphic scenes in the story. Of course, the whole year is horrible for both sides. The January Tet Lunar New Year offensive catches Americans and South Vietnamese completely by surprise. Despite inflicting heavy casualties, the North suffers a military defeat. It’s America’s first televised war, though, and the Soviets expect a big public relations victory in the U.S. They get it. The author, an ex-SEAL himself, writes that this is his most heavily researched book, and it shows. It is a tale of brotherhood, betrayal, and bloodshed. One senses the futility of it all, more so after Tet, where even body counts and bravery ultimately count for little. The U.S. will be ensnared in Vietnam for seven more years, plenty of time for Tom Reece to serve and to fight in a few sequels. He is a brave and decent man who takes pain and dishes it out. No spoiler here—he survives, as his son James is the protagonist of seven more thrillers such as True Believer (2019).
Powerful, violent, and engrossing.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781668095256
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
This mystery’s promising premise bogs down in an overloaded cast.
When one woman takes on another’s identity to uncover a crime, they both become suspects in a murder.
Aubrey Price and Camille Bayliss come from different worlds, only crossing paths because of the discovery that Camille’s husband, powerful lawyer Ben Bayliss, is hiding something terrible that affects them both. As the novel opens, Aubrey is driving Camille’s Range Rover, then teetering into a bar on Camille’s high heels, with Camille’s dress and credit cards and a wig that mimics Camille’s hair, pretending to be her because Ben tracks his wife’s every move and expenditure, and Camille wants to create a smokescreen while she sneaks into his office in search of evidence of that unnamed secret. But the scheme goes awry, and the women become each other’s alibis after Camille finds Ben murdered in their home. The first part of the book builds suspense and misdirection well, with Aubrey and Ben’s straight-arrow partner, Hank Landry, serving as first-person observers in some chapters while others track Camille. She’s a wealthy and privileged woman but not a happy one, stuck under the thumbs of her husband and her tyrannical father, Randall Everett, who pretty much runs their small Louisiana town. Aubrey was orphaned as a teen when her parents died in a car crash and has proudly fended for herself ever since, coming to depend on her four roommates, who have become friends. But as the cast of characters grows, it seems as if almost everyone in town has a motive for killing Ben, and the piling up of suspects and movements among different timelines can sometimes be confusing. And it all comes to a frustrating end when, after a whole school of red herrings, the solution to Ben’s murder arrives out of far left field.
This mystery’s promising premise bogs down in an overloaded cast.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780593834459
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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