A well-crafted, diverting thriller.
A DEA desk agent is forced into the field in Karl’s thriller.
In the mid-1980s, during President Reagan’s War on Drugs, Thomas Sebastian works as a researcher at the Drug Enforcement Administration. The role means a lot to him (his brother dies of an overdose), but he has no combat or field experience—the only thing close is a stint he served in the Peace Corps, in Thailand. It turns out that his Thai language abilities are just what the DEA needs for a drug bust in Bangkok. Thomas goes through a hellish few weeks of combat training and assumes a new identity: Robert Jordan. “Robert” travels to Bangkok and meets his new team, which includes a Thai agent and ex-detective, an American woman who’s a remarkably fierce combatant, and their overseer, who keeps spirits up. Their jobs are complicated, requiring them to avoid angering the local police as well as the city’s drug cartels as they snoop around and break into potential drug sites (Robert must act as if can’t speak Thai). Soon, Robert encounters violence he knows he’s not cut out for and meets an alluring woman at a local cafe who may or may not be an informant (“He breathed in her perfume—jasmine”). It’s difficult to negotiate everyone’s competing interests, and Robert finds himself in way over his head. The story is fairly straightforward, buoyed by political discussions and humor, and the characters are funny and easy to root for. There’s an odd lack of suspense and danger, though—the actual destructive effects of the drug trafficking aren’t seen much on the page, and they aren’t often used to further the plot, beyond justifying backstories. A tense shoot-out happens near the end of the novel, but it doesn’t land as well as it should because the stakes don’t feel high enough to justify the impact the scene seems to intend. Additionally, some of the characters (particularly those who are Thai, female, or both) are predictable and stereotypical. Still, this is a competent, enjoyable thriller with some substance, and spy novel fans will likely enjoy it—particularly those with an interest in the 1980s and Thailand.
A well-crafted, diverting thriller.Pub Date: Dec. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9798987014172
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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