by James P. Barker ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
Despite some literary missteps, an artfully unsettling tale of the contest between reason and madness.
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A new mother just released from a psychiatric institution is desperate to solve the mystery that haunts her in Barker’s novel.
Immediately after giving birth to her daughter, Rebecca, Sunny Johnson is committed to a psychiatric facility by her husband, Taylor, a psychiatrist himself. She’s diagnosed with peripartum psychosis, a condition that manifests itself in delusions, hallucinations, and irrational paranoia—and, in Sunny’s case, threats of violence against her husband. She’s dogged by memories, splintered impressions that don’t seem to correspond to any lived experience, and upon her release from the hospital she becomes obsessed with coming up with a rational explanation for them, a profound need poignantly captured by the author. In fact, Sunny teaches psychology at a university, and has a professional interest in the tendencies of the human psyche to embrace the irrational, as well as optimism about the power of rationality to liberate oneself from such fantasies. She flees with Rebecca in search of a home that she sees in her reveries and that she painted pictures of while in the hospital. That house turns out to be real, a former funeral parlor in Alexandria Bay in upstate New York with a gruesome past no one in town seems eager to discuss. When she stumbles upon the house from her dreams, she simply knows she’s been there and that, in an inexplicable way, she’s deeply connected to it. “That was why she was here; she was putting into practice what she preached—seeking out the facts required to explore alternate perspectives. Only then could one come to a rational explanation based on logic. But Sunny’s fears weren’t manifested in the manner most people might experience. Instead, they were from not knowing what these events were.” Barker deftly combines Sunny’s internal struggle with external drama, including Taylor’s frantic, police-assisted search for his wife and her likely recommitment to the hospital once she’s found.
At the heart of this suspenseful novel is an exploration of the challenge of certifying oneself as rational—Sunny is not a naïve woman, and she has no time for the supernatural, but she also feels a deep conviction that the strange images that impose themselves upon her are somehow connected to the real world. Occasionally, Barker indulges some cliched literary strategies. The appearance of a mysterious fortuneteller, Madame Vanderhill, who speaks in cryptic riddles, makes the tale temporarily feel like the rehashing of an old paperback formula (she’s the one character in the book who seems like a stock type, a prefabricated template). At times, Barker strains to build dramatic tension; it is simply not necessary for this refrain to appear so often: “I’ve been here…before.” Each instance seems like an anxious reminder that this is a creepy story, a note delivered to readers in whom Barker has limited confidence. Still, the novel as a whole is impressively well crafted and, in fact, genuinely creepy—and unpredictable, to boot.
Despite some literary missteps, an artfully unsettling tale of the contest between reason and madness.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Ruth Ware ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2025
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.
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New York Times Bestseller
Travel writer Lo Blacklock is back. Ten years after the events of The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), she's attending the opening of a lavish Swiss hotel when, once again, a mystery intervenes.
A decade after she almost died on a luxury cruise and ended up exposing a murder plot, travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock is trying to get back into the business post-Covid-19 and post–maternity leave. When she's invited to an exclusive hotel launch by the Leidmann Group on the shores of Switzerland’s gorgeous Lake Geneva, her supportive husband, Judah, insists that she should go, and her old boss, Rowan, says that if Lo can score an interview with the reclusive Marcus Leidmann, she’ll publish it in the Financial Times. Leaving Judah and the kids at home in New York, Lo is surprised by a last-minute upgrade to first class, which kicks off her trip in style. The hotel is appropriately awe-inspiring in both scenic location and effortless luxury, and Lo starts to put the memories of last trip’s trauma behind her, thinking that maybe she can just enjoy the experience this time. But then, at dinner, she's surprised to see at least three guests who were also on that original cruise, and when she finds a mysterious note in her room saying "Please come to suite 11 as soon as possible," she gets another shock. To quote William Faulkner, she realizes that “the past is never dead,” and soon Lo is careening across Europe on her way to England, only to find herself embroiled in another murder. The back half of the novel offers her the opportunity to continue her amateur sleuthing, and while she avoids much of the physical danger that plagued her on the cruise a decade ago, she is in very real legal trouble. This is the prolific Ware’s first sequel, and it's fun to spend time with Lo again, as she's both savvy and kindhearted. Unfortunately, the mystery is not as atmospheric and gripping as usual for Ware, though even a lesser Ruth Ware thriller is still worth reading.
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781668025628
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
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by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2025
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
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New York Times Bestseller
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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