A bloody, escapist thriller following a man with nothing to lose.
In D’Aquisto’s thriller, a retired cop goes head-to-head with brutal gangs in rural Sri Lanka.
Three years after retiring from the Seattle Police Department, detective-turned-private-investigator John Sandes finds himself on an extended vacation in Sri Lanka, where he spends the days swimming in the warm sea and sampling the local cuisine at beachside restaurants. On a drive between resort areas, he stops for lunch in what appears to be a sleepy town—one so small it’s not marked on his map—only to witness two men attack a woman with acid. After the police refuse to do anything about the incident (other than advise Sandes to leave the area), he learns that the town is hostage to two outlaw factions: a group of Australian drug smugglers and the Sri Lankan mob. Never one to let an injustice go unaddressed, Sandes finds and kills one of the woman’s attackers—a Sri Lankan mobster—earning him the respect of the Australians. He temporarily enters the protection of the Aussies, thus upsetting the town’s fragile truce. Disgusted by the murderous behavior of both groups, Sandes finds himself caught, perhaps fatally, between a rock and a hard place. If he wants to ever make it out of Sri Lanka alive, he’s going to have to shoot his way out. The point of view alternates between that of John and several supporting characters, but D’Aquisto’s no-frills prose is a constant: “As soon as I heard the bang, I bolted away,” narrates Sandes during a typical fracas. “I didn’t want to lose any time. I heard tons of gunshots. I knew there was a chance someone would shoot me in the back as I ran, but my hope was that the two gangs would be too busy shooting at each other to notice me.” Despite Sandes’s profession, the narrative does not involve much detecting, and the plot serves primarily to shuttle John between shootouts. With its tropical Sri Lankan setting, this will be a satisfying beach read for fans of 1980s action movies.
A bloody, escapist thriller following a man with nothing to lose.Pub Date: June 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781069287816
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.
Second of the Walter Nash thrillers—following Nash Falls (2025)—in which the remade hero seeks vengeance.
Due to urgent circumstances, Nash has bulked himself up to become the “muscled and tatted fighting machine” now known as Dillon Hope. His antagonist is Victoria Steers, a global drug dealer who wants him dead. Not realizing his new identity, she enlists Hope to free her mother, Masuyo, from a prison in Myanmar. As an incentive, she shoots one of her associates and threatens to frame Hope for the murder unless he complies. She also wants him to find Nash. He in turn wants to kill Victoria to avenge the death of his innocent daughter, Maggie. “If I go down,” he muses, “I’m taking others with me. Starting with Victoria Steers.” He learns that Victoria had killed all her siblings to eliminate business competition. But as heartless as Victoria is, her mother, Masuyo, is even worse. In league with the Chinese government in a perverse plan to kill as many Americans as possible through fentanyl overdose, she shows contempt for Victoria for her perceived weaknesses. Readers won’t find many happy family relationships here: mother-daughter, father-son, husband-wife—all fraught. Hope’s employer, who accompanies him to Myanmar, is a billionaire chief executive with a dodgy past (i.e., probably killed his father). And there’s a mega-billionaire with an astronomical IQ and ditch-deep morals who, putting it mildly, does not have America’s best interests at heart. As a teenager, he’d defeated two world chess champions; as an adult, he regards his dealings with the world in terms of master chess moves. Only one character seems truly decent and credible—Hiroko, Victoria’s former nanny and lifelong companion, who provides Hope with valuable insights into the Steers’ background, which is partly Chinese. Searing grudges, simple evil, and not-so-simple misunderstandings carry the cast through this complex, action-packed plot. This sequel ties out the loose ends dangling in Nash Falls, which would be helpful to read first. To get to the requisite ending, though, Baldacci takes pains to surprise the reader. It works but often feels forced.
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781538758021
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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