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 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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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