A compulsively readable, environmentally conscious crime story whose activist message doesn’t inhibit plot and pacing.
A wind farm project and fishermen’s livelihoods clash with deadly results in Foreman’s thriller.
An unlikely crush on international climate activist Greta Thunberg sets in motion a fatal chain of events in this small-town story with far-reaching implications. Inspired and besotted by Thunberg, Olaf Svensson embarks on a mission to build a wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod’s Provincetown by any means necessary. His convoluted plan involves hiring fellow Swedes, scientists, and newlyweds Leif and Astrid Borgen, who get hired at Outermost Aquaculture with promises to use genetic engineering to create bigger, better, and thus more valuable scallops. Secretly, they’ll conduct their own work on behalf of Olaf, developing a toxic variant of scallops that will ravage the area where he wishes to build his wind farm. But when Provincetown locals start getting sick and even dying from the poisonous shellfish, the wheels quickly come off the plan. Astrid is burdened by guilt, and Leif turns to alcohol and women as his marriage falls apart. All while Samantha Fuller—Pulitzer-winning journalist for the Boston Times—gets wind of a story that’s much bigger than tainted seafood. Also caught in the turbines is Isabella Ferreira, a local fisherwoman who becomes the unexpected political voice of reason between the various environmentalist camps. At its heart, the novel navigates the terrain between the necessity of viable and affordable alternative energy sources to fossil fuel and the real-world impact they may have on livelihoods and even the environments these solutions are purported to save. The author’s background as an award-winning health columnist is evident throughout, giving clear-eyed explanations of complex scientific material. She also has a firm grasp of the complexities that arise in relationships between ambitious, career-minded couples. Those who have a keen interest in coastal life or environmental policy would do well to put this on their summer beach-reading list.
A compulsively readable, environmentally conscious crime story whose activist message doesn’t inhibit plot and pacing.Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2026
ISBN: 9798896363668
Page Count: 272
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: July 8, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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