A melodramatic, ultimately disappointing endeavor.
Fifteen years ago, Rachel Cunningham killed her parents. Or so she thought.
Rachel was only 11 when she shot her mother, watched her father turn his rifle on himself in their remote hunting lodge on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and then was found catatonic after having disappeared into the deep woods for two weeks. Now 26, she’s been in and out of psychiatric institutions, unable to come to terms with her terrible deed. The world thinks her father killed her mother, then himself: Rachel confessed, but no one believed her. One day, Trevor, an aspiring journalist, sits down with Rachel so she can tell her story and hopefully clear her father’s name. Then she plans to take her own life. But when Rachel catches a glimpse of the police report that says there's no way she could have fired that rifle, she questions everything she thought she knew about that day, and the gaps in her memory take on an even more ominous hue. She checks herself out of the hospital, calls Trevor for a ride, and heads back to the lodge, where her older sister, Diana, and her aunt, Charlotte, have lived for years. Choosing to hide out in the lodge rather than reveal herself, Rachel searches for clues about her parents’ deaths and soon realizes that Diana, and their complicated relationship, may hold the key to everything. Interspersed with Rachel’s present-day narrative, her mother, Jenny, who was a wildlife biologist along with Rachel’s father, Peter, details the years leading up to her death and the distressing events that marked their otherwise idyllic existence. Dionne has her locale down pat: It doesn’t get much creepier than a huge lodge filled with taxidermic animals where cell signals are scarce and dangers lurk in the surrounding woods. The characters lack nuance, though, and Dionne tends to clearly telegraph upcoming plot twists. Further, the book’s true villain does everything short of mustache twirling, and it’s not quite clear if readers should take Rachel’s earnest claim that she can talk to animals seriously. In the end, it’s all just a bit too much.
A melodramatic, ultimately disappointing endeavor.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-735-21303-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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