A gripping race-the-clock tale featuring savvy female supporting characters and sobering social commentary.
A man travels the globe to find a cure for an Army sniper who’s infected by a fast-growing virus in this second installment of a techno-thriller series.
Damon, a lone-wolf operative, hears Army sniper Claire Ferreti scream in her Washington, D.C., apartment. She has discovered that she is infected by the “runaway microbe” already reported in 143 countries that typically kills in 51 days (“Not since the Black Plague had so many died so fast”). He hustles Claire to his high-tech safe house in the Adirondacks and sets off to find a cure. His quest involves connecting with two figures: the Vietnamese man who first trained Damon in survival skills and the American president’s public-relations mastermind. The latter helps Damon gain access to a World Health Organization conference in Vienna. Damon meets a Viennese woman with an infected child; she joins him at the conference, which is disrupted by a terrorist incident. Damon instructs her to go into hiding in France with an intriguing conference scientist who may have a cure. Meanwhile, Jonny, an Alaska-based journalist and blogger, arrives at the Washington foundation that Claire runs. Her attractive assistant, perhaps directed by a powerful politician, urges Jonny to attend the conference as well. The compelling novel culminates with many players, including Claire, in a showdown at the London Eye observation wheel. Klingler introduced Claire and Damon in his debut thriller, Rats(2014), which focused on pipeline sabotage in Alaska. This sequel deftly builds on that promising launch with a timely pandemic topic and the entertaining use of international locales. The author thankfully avoids Bond girl–type clichés by ensuring that the women who meet motorcycle-riding hottie Damon and striving journalist Jonny have smarts and some agency in driving the action. Klingler’s narrative also serves as a powerful cautionary tale and warning regarding the dangerous interplay of science, technology, greed, and government.
A gripping race-the-clock tale featuring savvy female supporting characters and sobering social commentary.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2023
ISBN: 978-1941156155
Page Count: 521
Publisher: Cartosi LLC
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.
Jack Ryan Jr. and company race to stop a killer wave in this Tom Clancy thriller.
The ship Meridian Star departs eastern Russia unknowingly carrying a pair of containers with radioactive cesium chloride. The vessel is hijacked and scuttled in Micronesia near the Mariana Trench, and the crew is murdered. A huge insurance claim results, and Jack, an accomplished deep-sea diver who works for Hendley Associates, is there to investigate. The hostile Chinese learn it’s there and want that illicit cargo. Meanwhile, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center discovers a huge, mysterious object in 600 feet of water. At that depth, the pressure is unsurvivable without complex special equipment, which is vintage Tom Clancy. Whatever the strange object is, it’s “not a ship…not a submarine…not an aircraft.” On the side is a faded hammer and sickle and Cyrillic letters that spell Siren. Ryan teams up with Navy divers, and they look for a way to safely enter and explore the object. They discover that the underwater contraption has thermonuclear warheads attached, left and long forgotten by the USSR. If the warheads explode, they could still achieve their apparent purpose—to trigger a tsunami and destroy Guam, which is strategically important to the U.S. The Chinese know it too, and the race is on to take control. The result is plenty of high-stakes undersea action, where death can come from a bullet, a knife, or a sliced air hose. But there’s action on land, too. Navy master diver Carla Bennett and Jack take on a surprise assault in a hotel where Carla shows off stellar fighting skills—better than Jack’s. These two aren’t the only heroes here, as there’s a well-balanced cast of characters, all brave and likable. And of course—of course—where there’s a bomb, there’s a ticking clock.
Nail-biting and pressure-packed.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798217183166
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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