A satisfying blend of legal drama and psychological thriller.
In Greco’s thriller, a lawyer defending a serial rapist in a high-profile trial suspects something dark is at play when his girlfriend goes missing and bodies begin to pile up.
Jedidiah “Jed” Bouvier has spent 17 years as a public defender in Murrieta County, California. His most difficult case begins when he takes on client Dexter Wayne Jones, a serial rapist and possible killer on trial (again) for the decades-old slayings of an entire family. With the previous trial having ended with a hung jury, the pressure is on to make this one count. Jed feels the evidence is circumstantial enough to possibly set Dexter free, but the case’s bulldog prosecutor, Catalina “Cat” Galvez, has other ideas. An already complicated situation gets even messier when one juror from the first trial is found murdered and a second goes missing. Jed’s new girlfriend of a few months, Amy, also disappears, leading him to wonder if he ever really knew her in the first place. It soon becomes clear, from jury tampering and threats of violence, that someone is interfering with the proceedings. As the trial finally nears its end, Jed unsuspectingly hurtles toward a shocking revelation that changes everything. Greco delivers a dialogue-heavy courtroom drama that manages to move briskly and avoid any tedious legal verbiage. Although the book’s main twist is not particularly surprising, the buildup to get there is more than worthwhile. This success is thanks to the author’s clear and occasionally sardonic narrative voice (Jed “often wondered whether practicing law or drinking whiskey was more to blame for wrecking his life”), believable dialogue, and a cast of characters who manage to transcend their plot functions to feel like real people. (Jed’s oft-contentious conversations with his ex-wife prove particularly illuminating.) The result is a satisfying, if somewhat predictable, yarn that meaningfully probes themes of justice, forgiveness, and revenge.
A satisfying blend of legal drama and psychological thriller.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9798999855008
Page Count: 332
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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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