This thriller paraphrases Fitzgerald: The rich are different from you and me—they’re worse.
Four friends gather to memorialize a woman’s death, clouded by darkness even five years later.
Frick has crafted an entry in the genre of stories that entertain by revealing what terrible people the rich are. Its four main characters aren’t really rich yet, but they’re aspirational: David McKinnon aspires to be a successful screenwriter, Sirina Shaw aspires to be a famous actor, Harper Gates aspires to be a writer, and Luca di Adamo aspires to find a wealthy boyfriend to support him in idle luxury. What the four have in common is their college friendship with someone truly rich: heiress Clare Monroe. As the book begins, the four receive an invitation to attend a memorial for Clare—a bit belatedly, since she’s been dead for five years. All of them were there when she drowned during a wild New Year’s Eve party, an event they each recall with dread. But it’s hard to turn down the invitation, which includes first-class travel and a week at the Monroe family’s palazzo on the shore of Lake Como, all expenses paid. So they gather in Italy, and as they reconnect, flashbacks flesh out the web of bargains and betrayals their friendships with each other and with Clare were built on—everybody is guilty of all sorts of things. Weird stuff happens, Clare’s possessions showing up in guest rooms and then disappearing, and everyone starts to notice how creepy old Aunt Catherine is. Things are not simple enough to be explained by a creepy aunt, though, and suspicion grows in all directions. Readers who insist on likable characters might look elsewhere, but the author keeps the pace revving like the classic sports cars the guests drive on some of their excursions, and she builds tension well. She also packs the book with enough status-object porn to make readers drool. It’s a little too easy to guess the most villainous villain, but there’s entertainment along the way.
This thriller paraphrases Fitzgerald: The rich are different from you and me—they’re worse.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781668022535
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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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