A powerful story of a country in turmoil as one woman’s life hangs in the balance.
In Coleman’s novel, political unrest in Eastern Europe tests various characters’ faith, love, and loyalties.
In a small, unnamed Eastern European country, Romanian immigrant Revekah Cojocaru is arrested during a protest for allegedly inciting violence after a truck drives through the crowd and gangs attack protestors in the streets. Revekah is held prisoner while police search for her collaborators, and many people find their lives upended in the fallout: Revekah’s parents, Alex and Lia, are back in Romania, desperate to get their daughter out of prison, while her younger sister, Daciana, decides to go through underground channels on a quest to find government corruption. Aside from the Cojocarus, Revekah’s pastor, Aaron Iddrisu, is also in danger as a collaborator and recruiter. His lawyer, Karl, is conscripted by the government to spy on Aaron and report his activities while dealing with the impending death of his sick wife. Meanwhile, across the globe, all eyes are on The Cynic, an anonymous newspaper that has unique insight into the government’s shadier dealings. As Revekah’s freedom looks increasingly unlikely, people in her adopted country rally their support. Coleman presents an intriguing and personal political novel. The violence is never sensationalized beyond belief, and its spies, rebels, and hackers receive unvarnished portrayals. The heart of the novel is Alex, a father and farmer who feels powerless to help his daughter but emboldened by her courage in the face of torture and imprisonment. Although the novel doesn’t specify the country where the protests take place, it’s clear why this story feels timely as war rages between Russia and Ukraine. It’s a political thriller without an action hero or superspy archetype; instead, it’s populated by everyday people seeking justice. Although coverups, assassinations, and conspiracies seem like fodder for fiction, Coleman’s work reminds readers that such things are very, very real: “Hope is not a plan,” as Lia emphatically states, but its impact brings these characters together against all odds.
A powerful story of a country in turmoil as one woman’s life hangs in the balance.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781636987866
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morgan James Fiction
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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