A memorable cast of mortals and ghosts complements this spooky thriller.
This fourth installment of Walters’ fantasy series pits a Des Moines detective and his spectral partner against a diabolical, supernaturally powerful woman.
Detective Brett O’Shea’s impressive track record includes taking down serial killers and monsters. But he can’t accept all the credit; he gets a lot of help from his late great-grandfather Michael—a natty, fedora-sporting ghost. When Chief Terry Anders sends him to check on a noise complaint, Brett tells local fortuneteller Simone Moreau to tone down her late-night drum music. Simone, who claims to be a descendant of famed Louisiana Voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau, becomes obsessed with the detective. She believes that Brett, like her, possesses magic, as she senses the invisible partner who often accompanies him. She vows to uncover his secrets and get him into her bed—whether he’s willing or not. Meanwhile, Brett believes that Shawn Carter, the new chief of detectives, has it out for him. Carter seemingly takes his aggression out on him, demoting him to patrol duty. This makes it all the more taxing for Brett to look into the inexplicable things happening in the city, especially the strange phenomenon of people (including Anders) wandering around as if lost. Simone is powerful enough to threaten Brett’s fellow cops as well as his girlfriend, Lisa Winslow, without being anywhere near them. But her magic could destroy all of Des Moines, and if Brett can’t stop her, he, his loved ones, and thousands of others will be in serious trouble.
There’s no investigation or murder mystery in Walters’ fourth outing with Brett O’Shea. It’s a supernatural thriller featuring villains who don’t bother hiding themselves. Carter makes his animosity for Brett obvious, and Simone blatantly tells him she’s coming for him. It certainly makes for a tense narrative—there’s perpetual menace ready to strike Brett, Lisa, Anders, and even Michael. They face evil that they can’t always see (such as a mysterious illness) as well as more tangible threats: Hordes of zombies rear their ugly heads, roaming the city, swarming buildings, and banging on doors. One mystery does unfold—the nature of Brett’s own supernatural ability, which may help in fighting Simone. The novel’s easygoing tone incorporates an understated religious theme, with Michael casually addressing God almost as if the two regularly converse: “You're the Big Guy, after all. You can do anything. Right?” This Judeo-Christian thread somewhat demonizes Voodooism, as Simone, an apparent priestess, is the antagonistic, evil “she-witch” who wields the dark arts. However, Walters smartly shrouds Simone and most of what she does in ambiguity without specifying the source of her malevolence. Overall, it’s a grim story occasionally alleviated by likable characters and humor. Brett and Lisa make an endearingly devoted couple, but the highlight is Brett’s relationship with his phantom relative. Michael tends to make his presence known without warning, suddenly speaking into Brett’s ear to ensure his great-grandson jumps in shock. Despite a solid resolution to this tale, the ending more than hints that another sequel will follow.
A memorable cast of mortals and ghosts complements this spooky thriller.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 260
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
This thriller’s eerie mood is deflated by a plot with more holes than a Halloween sheet.
Could making a movie about the disappearance of five women from an island reawaken an evil presence there?
Five dresses hang from the topmost limbs of an oak on a remote island in a Vermont lake. That memorable image marks a mystery from a century ago, when five women believed to have been part of a commune vanished forever. As this novel opens, another group gathers on the island to make a movie based on that tale. Marin Keane, the narrator, is surprised but thrilled to find herself cast as one of the leads; she’s a struggling actor whose biggest part so far has been “Bridesmaid with Eczema” in a drug commercial, so playing Daisy Rue, whose haunting diary is the basis for the movie’s script, could be a career-making move. Ronan Peters, the writer-director, is talented and, Marin notes, hot. His reason for gathering the cast on the island is a kind of boot-camp rehearsal: They’ll spend a week living there, wearing period clothes, and managing without internet or phone service. Oh, and holding séances. What could go wrong? Marin quickly meets the other women in the cast: regal character actor Julianne Brown, cool and competent Heather Benchley, bratty former Disney star Susie Hutchinson, and, striking awe in all of them, Violet Wright, a much-awarded Meryl Streep-ish figure who will play the woman who brought the others to the island, which she owned. They get to work, but soon enough someone disappears. The book’s plot, like the movie’s script, largely follows Daisy’s journal, and since the reader is supplied with pages-long sections of that journal, there’s not much suspense about what will happen next. There are some effective set pieces, such as the group’s first séance. But in its last quarter, the plot collapses into a muddle of #MeToo vengeance, improbable secrets, and jarring character reveals that is, as Marin says, “the most Scooby-Doo thing I’ve ever heard.”
This thriller’s eerie mood is deflated by a plot with more holes than a Halloween sheet.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798217044092
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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