Marshall’s chilling new novel pushes all the right buttons when it comes to inexorable suspense and psychological frights.
Astonishing secrets come to light at a mountain retreat when a young woman goes to meet her fiance’s family.
In the opening pages of Marshall’s terrific—and terrifying—new thriller, Theodora Scott is on her way meet her fiance’s wealthy family. Having met and fallen for Connor Dalton at a friend’s party a mere six months earlier, Theo is ready to give love a chance. First, though, she has to navigate meeting his family at Idlewood, their isolated mountain retreat. As a rule, she learns, non–family members are not permitted apart from a handful of employees and a few locals who have special permission during hunting season. This delicious setup is promisingly sinister enough but, as Theo’s narration continues, it becomes clear that she has secrets of her own to keep: Some of that has to do with her earlier life as a child who was adopted by a fundamentalist religious couple, Beth and Joseph; some of it has to do with anonymous messages she’s been receiving, warning her to stay away from Connor. As the family gathering progresses, Theo survives the domesticity of “pie day” and a grilling by Connor’s sister, mother, and grandmother. Later, she also survives a far less domestic hunting session (and just as much of a grilling) with Connor’s grandfather. But it’s what Theo discovers when she snoops around an abandoned cabin in the family compound that threatens to blow everything she knew—and didn’t know—about herself wide open. Theo has always had vague, dreamlike, and splintered memories of her pre-adoption life—she was only 4 when she came to live with Beth and Joseph. But when her cabin exploration turns up an old photograph of herself as a child at Idlewild, that’s when Theo’s real-life (read: life-threatening) nightmare really begins.
Marshall’s chilling new novel pushes all the right buttons when it comes to inexorable suspense and psychological frights.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781250343055
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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
A particularly nasty villain heightens the stakes in this thriller about a woman learning how to be her own hero.
An author is targeted by a fan who just can’t let her go.
Arden Bowie has had plenty of tragedy in her life, but now she’s finally on top. After her parents died when she was a teenager, she moved from Brooklyn to Ohio to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. She soon became part of their loving family and grew up to become a writer and bookseller. When her debut novel is published, she meets Dustin Dubecki at her first event. He showers her with praise, asks for writing advice, and wants to take her out for coffee. Arden tells herself he’s just a little awkward, but then he keeps showing up at her local events—and, even stranger, she’s sure she sees him lurking at her event in New York City. When he bursts into her apartment one night and assaults her, Arden’s calm life is shattered. Dustin gets a five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility; Arden spends most of that time rebuilding her sense of stability. Eventually, she moves to Oregon to start a new life where Dustin can never find her. But even though she has a beautiful home, a thriving career, a doting family, new friends, and even a potential love interest in a former cop named Gideon Riley, Arden can’t escape Dustin’s rage when his sentence is finally up. Roberts toggles between Arden’s point of view and Dustin’s, giving the reader occasional glimpses into his extremely twisted mindset. Although Arden’s attempts to escape Dustin are engrossing, the story stalls in the middle when far too many pages are dedicated to Arden purchasing and decorating a house. But the excitement picks back up when Dustin, a truly odious villain, re-enters the story. It’s also satisfying to see Arden grow into someone who refuses to be a victim, even as she deals with horrifying circumstances.
A particularly nasty villain heightens the stakes in this thriller about a woman learning how to be her own hero.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250413581
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
