A page-turning legal thriller where small-town folks meet big-league stakes.
In Carroll’s novel, a retirement community becomes mired in a murder that unravels a larger conspiracy.
The main concern of the residents of Northport, a condo complex on Cape Cod, is keeping their rising condo fees under control. That’s until one of their own, HOA president Tony Brown, is found dead in a pile of road salt, his throat slashed wide open. The news sends shock waves through the tightknit, gossipy community, who not only worry about their safety, but also about the secrets an investigation might uncover. As ADA Heidi Larson starts putting together her case, the focus lands on former big pharma executive Diana Foster, Tony’s partner in more ways than one. Tony and Diana were running a smuggling operation, importing prescription heart medication from Canada and selling it to Northport residents who couldn’t afford its American price tag. But the operation grew beyond Diana’s knowledge, with Tony feeding black markets in big cities, leaving the Northport community high and dry. Diana hires defense lawyer Jamie Carson, who digs into the case; Carson not only fights to clear his client’s name, but also finds an ADA playing fast and loose with legal procedure and more malfeasance hidden behind Northport’s respectable facade. The author’s experience as a state and federal criminal lawyer is evident throughout the novel, which navigates the finer details of trial procedure and case law without ever losing the reader. It’s also a geographically compelling read, never leaving the salt air breeze of Cape Cod for too long, even as the story reaches as far north as Canada and as far south as Florida. Naturally balancing an engrossing murder investigation with developments in the personal life of Jamie Carson and his associates, Carroll writes with a solid understanding of how to build a compelling case.
A page-turning legal thriller where small-town folks meet big-league stakes.Pub Date: June 29, 2026
ISBN: 9798951390950
Page Count: 315
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2026
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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