Sleuths will delight in piecing together clues and untangling lies alongside the protagonists.
Part murder mystery, part interpersonal drama, a serviceable whodunit (or did anyone?) with a host of compelling characters.
Waverly, New York, seems idyllic—but secrets, half-truths, and distrust run right beneath the surface of this pastoral college town. Ten years ago, art student Emma McCullough disappeared from a party and was never seen again, alive or dead. Her disappearance is widely believed to be the result of suicide; nevertheless, her family, and in particular her sister—medical student Haley—clings to the idea that there was foul play involved. When Emma’s bracelet is discovered in the cliffs behind campus, and later when Haley’s realtor—and Emma’s college bff—Josie Carmichael is attacked at an open house, the thin bandages covering a multitude of lies start to peel away. The narration cycles among the perspectives of Haley, who takes on her trauma with a mix of logic and compulsive rituals; Emma’s former art professor Priya, who deals with her troubled marriage with medication prescribed by her husband; and, most grippingly, the Emma of 10 years earlier, who navigates depression, sex, and uncomfortable relationships. All the while we are sent down paths of red herrings and false evidence as we bounce from one prospective adversary to the next. The plot is often driven by characters making decisions that dip into the less-than-believable (do people really send incriminating emails from accounts with their full names?), and Sise’s attempts at broaching her characters’ interiority can be awkwardly clichéd (“Haven’t you ever been with a bunch of people, and you still feel really lonely?”). But while it may lack the psychological intrigue of others of its genre, this novel has just enough twists to keep its readers along for the ride.
Sleuths will delight in piecing together clues and untangling lies alongside the protagonists.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-9265-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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
The queen of social activist novels has done it again. Impressive, important, and fun to read.
The World Trade Center attacks are at the center of an intricate, twisty family drama spanning decades in both directions.
“You could brace for your sister to die of a terminal illness, only to have your healthy sibling killed in a random car wreck. You could carry a baby safely to term and then, on a bright blue day in September, walk into a building that collapsed beneath your feet.” Or you could be a character in a Jodi Picoult novel and face all of the above and much, much more. Fans of My Sister’s Keeper (2004) will notice a reference to that novel in the preceding quote and be glad to hear a character from that book is back. During the Covid-19 pandemic, former teenage delinquent Jesse Fitzgerald, now a detective on the Providence, Rhode Island, police force, meets Molly Ambrose, a 19-year-old prodigy who runs the state’s emergency preparedness and response program. “Despite the fact that there were fifteen years between us and we both had enough baggage to fill a cargo hold,” as Molly puts it, the two fall madly in love. The baggage she’s referring to includes, on her side, a mother who died on 9/11 when Molly was less than three months old. Picoult supplies her signature delightful banter and gift for depicting passion and romance to win the reader’s sympathy for this possibly questionable match between dedicated public servants, whose favorite game at bedtime is “Who can think of the most terrifying worst-case scenario?” Very little more can be revealed without spoilers, but trigger warnings for this book would be a long list indeed, ranging from suicide and filicide to rape and mental illness (welcome to Picoultland!). Subplots visit evangelical and Navajo cultures as well as the ins and outs of polygraphy. Make sure to read the afterword in which Picoult explains her real-life sources of inspiration.
The queen of social activist novels has done it again. Impressive, important, and fun to read.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9780593726259
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
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