An educational and entertaining medical thriller.
In this mystery, a scientist must race to find the cure for a mysterious illness that’s killing children.
Dr. Sidonie Royal moved away from her boyfriend, Paul, and career as a pediatric physician for a research fellowship in Michigan. She dreams of becoming a scientist who makes an important discovery. But her decision has complicated her relationship with Paul, and his pressure on her to return to him and start a family only pushes her further away. She travels with her co-worker and friend Raven to visit Raven’s brother, River, in Brazil due to a concern that something is wrong with him. Once they arrive, they soon find a much bigger and more urgent problem: A strange illness is killing local children. Sid works with local physician Dr. Alancar, who describes the symptoms (They had a “high fever and a purple rash. Within a day of getting sick, they died”). But the two doctors can’t find a cure. She then does something dangerous: She smuggles a vial of blood back to the United States. At her lab in Michigan, Sid works tirelessly to try to discover the cause of the bacteria, and to her surprise, she receives help from the brusque yet brilliant Dr. Eliot Mitchell. As the two work together, their relationship goes from platonic to more than that. After Sid is starting to make progress, the Global Health Agency is brought in to conduct its own investigation, which results in a serious medical competition. Gilsdorf utilizes her own expertise in the field of microbiology to highlight and support the story, showcasing her knowledge while not detracting from the plot or characters. While at times the scientific exposition can be heavy, the information is intriguing and works well with the plot and character development. Sid’s strength in the face of such depressing research is inspiring. Her romance with Eliot is a fun slow burn that infuses some positivity into the story. The ending does leave some questions unanswered but delivers a satisfying resolution.
An educational and entertaining medical thriller.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 9780825309809
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Beaufort Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
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
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
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