A psychological thriller rife with pretzel-like twists, gaslighting galore, and revenge-fueled machinations.
The aftereffects of a break-in chafe on a London mother, leading to her stubborn pursuit of unanswered questions in this hair-raising thriller.
When a frightening man breaks into her London kitchen one evening, Alice Rathbone leaps into action. She’s hosting a playdate for her daughter and two other families, and when the intruder grabs a large kitchen knife and moves toward the room with the children in it, Alice goes into serious defense mode, grabbing a stool the man had kicked at her and fatally whacking him on the head. While waiting to hear from the police about whether she’ll be charged or cleared of any wrongdoing, Alice grapples with the randomness of the break-in, wanting to know more about her attacker. By all appearances, he was visibly under the effects of drugs or alcohol—or perhaps both—and had forced his way into a high-value home in a still-gentrifying neighborhood bent on destruction. But Alice can’t shake the desire to find out more about the person she killed, who turns out to be 18-year-old Ezra Jones. When, against her bail conditions, she wends her way into the life of Ezra’s family, things go spectacularly awry, even as Alice fends off anonymous phone calls and bitter, threatening online comments. The people closest to her—her husband, Jamie, a high-powered executive, and fellow school-focused mothers—beg her to move on, though one friend, Stella, a journalist, reluctantly agrees to assist with Alice’s investigation. Small items from Alice’s household go missing, the once-perfect nanny gives notice, and Alice’s life continues to fall apart. Skillfully spinning a taut, surprise-filled tale enlivened by multiple compelling characters, Faulkner keeps this highly charged guessing game going until the final page.
A psychological thriller rife with pretzel-like twists, gaslighting galore, and revenge-fueled machinations.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781668024812
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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