A credible and all too timely medical thriller with a hero who could go viral.
A medical investigator seeks the source of a catastrophic virus in Podjasek’s medical disaster thriller.
When a tsunami triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake rains destruction upon Southern California, Dr. Mallory Hayes is dispatched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help contain any subsequent outbreak of disease. Storm damage to sewer lines threatens exposure to E. coli, while the lack of running water makes hand-washing difficult and increases the spread of contaminants. But “a few bizarre deaths in otherwise healthy, young adults” point to an even deadlier and more immediate threat—one generated by human evil rather than tectonic forces. Meanwhile, in Sweden, Dr. Erik Lindgren has accrued gambling debts serious enough to warrant a menacing visit by two henchmen who beat him and pull one of his teeth. He vows vengeance against the company that fired him just before receiving his big payday for developing a protein for them, and he wants to get back at his wife for reporting his physical abuse. He hatches a plan to collaborate with Islamic terrorists to spread a virus around the world. The author etches a terrifying vision of the ensuing pandemic, as quarantine zones are established in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Southern California, Las Vegas, Sacramento, and Lake Tahoe. There is a substantial shortage of soldiers to enforce order, and in the six weeks it would take to develop even the first batch of a vaccine, the virus could spread across the entire country. While the attention given to Mallory’s personal baggage occasionally detracts from the virus’s very real and relatable danger, Podjasek provides a hateable villain in Lindgren. As an allergist/immunologist, the author knows her way around terms like “hemodynamically unstable ventricular tachycardia.” A medical thriller needs a viable, visceral menace to keep those pages turning, and Podjasek obliges.
A credible and all too timely medical thriller with a hero who could go viral.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781610885379
Page Count: 285
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.
A widowed and disgraced plastic surgeon is drawn into a Russian oligarch’s evil schemes.
Witherspoon’s adult fiction debut, co-authored with thrillermeister Coben, opens as heart surgery performed by Dr. Marc Adams in a North African refugee camp is interrupted by the explosive invasion of armed militants. It's the last we will see of Marc in this dimension. The next chapter jumps ahead one year to a ceremony at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where his widow, Maggie McCabe, is supposed to be presenting an award in honor of her mother. Miserable and anxious about appearing in public after having lost her medical license, she consults with her late husband on her phone—not via supernatural means, but using a "griefbot," an amazingly lifelike and functional AI app created by her genius sister, Sharon. Once the griefbot coaxes her to brave the sneering masses, she learns she’s been replaced on the podium anyway. But she runs into a former professor, a celebrity plastic surgeon, who requests a meeting with her at his office in New York and won’t take no for an answer. Next thing she knows, there’s $10 million in her bank account and she’s on a private plane heading to a palace outside Moscow where she’s been engaged to perform off-the-record surgery on billionaire Oleg Ragoravich (new face) and his girlfriend, Nadia (new boobs). And…we’re off. A whirl of surgeries, chases, and escapes ensues as Maggie gradually comes to understand who these people are and what they have in mind for her, and how it connects to Marc and their missing friend and business partner, Trace Packer. She is aided by her delightful father-in-law, Porkchop, owner of a biker bar in New York City and a very handy guy to have on your team if you've run afoul of an international criminal organization. From the palace in Rublevka the action moves to Dubai and then Bordeaux, climaxing in a high-stakes illegal heart transplant. But wait—is Marc really dead? What happened to Trace? Who is Nadia really? Though these smoldering questions don’t quite catch fire, it's a good first try for Witherspoon.
Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781538774700
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Fast-moving and disturbingly plausible.
Robots may be the future of warfare in this final father-son DeMille collaboration.
In Camp Hayden, Army Maj. Roger Ames is found dead, his skull crushed. Chief Warrant Officers Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, special agents of the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division, are sent to the Mojave Desert, “a.k.a. in the middle of nowhere,” to investigate. In this fictional military installation, Army Rangers conduct field training exercises with lethal autonomous weapons. These “dangerous new toys,” nicknamed “tin men,” may become the future of warfare if they can be programmed to distinguish between friend and foe. Anyway, the Rangers’ job is to train the tin men, not the other way around. They are AI-driven robotic prototypes called D-17s, but even prototypes can kill. Did a bot kill the major? And was there criminal liability or intent, or was it a tragic accident? Brodie and Taylor discover that not everyone loves these beasts, and they must find out if humans are programming them for mischief or even trying to set up the program for failure. Meanwhile, the bots have nicknames. Bot number 20 is Bucky, seen on a video as a “seven-foot-tall titanium machine with hands covered in blood and brain matter” that has “a face but no eyes, with hands but no skin, with a body but no soul.” As scary as these beasties are, Brodie and Taylor must also look at the humans at Camp Hayden, because they learn that the “machines don’t have motives….They have inputs and outputs,” which naturally come from human programmers. They have neither brains nor courage nor honor; they do have brute force, speed, and agility. Obviously, plenty goes haywire in this enjoyable yarn. It feels a bit too believable for comfort, and that’s to the DeMilles’ credit as storytellers. Nelson DeMille had begun this project with his son Alex, who had to finish it alone after his father’s death.
Fast-moving and disturbingly plausible.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781501101878
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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