Poor character development and a convoluted plot hurt what might have been an interesting story.
A mysterious manuscript sends a young journalist on a collision course with an ancient and deadly secret society.
Buried in Shockey’s thriller is a potentially interesting story about a preternaturally gifted child, a murderous secret society, a race for priceless art, and a young journalist on the verge of bringing a 250-year mystery to light. But getting past the roadblocks Shockey erects in order to find the good stuff is harder than it should be. The story begins when journalist Nyala finds a manuscript left at her door, written by a mysterious author who calls himself Tsau-z. He writes of a boy named Hunter who possesses a unique supernatural talent: He can immediately tell the value of antique objects. Animals defer to him: Dogs “seemed to nod” at him and “birds never flew away” from him. Nyala shares that gift: “Deer didn’t run from her. Neither did rabbits hop away as she walked by.” She’s fascinated and sets out to verify the story. But Shockey seems to have a muddled understanding of how journalism works, and Nyala herself smacks of wishful thinking, the result of the cultural and political agenda of the author rather than an actual person. She’s a beautiful but virginal 20-something with “exotic” looks and “coppery skin.” She disdains other journalists as fake news and thinks guys with man buns are “gender-confused.” She admires Hemingway, John Wayne, and the Guess Who, and loves to watch the hunting channel. This is convenient: The villain using Hunter for nefarious purposes is an animal rights activist who dreams of banning hunting altogether. The plot grows increasingly convoluted, making it frustrating to follow, and Shockey’s inability to flesh out characters in any meaningful way robs the narrative of urgency. Add long search descriptions from Wikipedia and Google, and your interest in Tsau-z’s tale wanes long before his secrets are revealed.
Poor character development and a convoluted plot hurt what might have been an interesting story.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781668010358
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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