A gripping tale about a devastated mother trying to find justice for her daughter.
In this novel, a woman struggles to rebuild her life after a violent tragedy exposes her family’s deep dysfunction.
On the surface, Jana Spencer lives an unremarkable small-town life. She works as a grant writer at a health clinic and worries about her teenage children: sullen, game-addicted Kyle, 18, a high school senior, and his vivacious sister, LaRissa, a 15-year-old freshman. Jana and her husband, Don, a handsome mechanic, were high school sweethearts, and her best friend, Sarah, lives next door. The cracks start to show when Jana gets a call alerting her that her daughter was absent from school that day. LaRissa isn’t at home or with any of her friends, and doesn’t answer her phone—in fact, no one has seen her since she attended a church social the night before. Kyle denies knowing anything, but seems to be acting strangely. After a sleepless night with no sign of LaRissa, Don calls the police to report her missing. The family members’ fear and anxiety only escalate the tensions between them. Jana starts sleeping in the guest room while Don and Kyle nearly come to blows. The police suspect Kyle isn’t telling them the truth. Then they find LaRissa’s abandoned purse and phone and figure “something must have happened” to her (“Teen girls don’t leave their phones behind voluntarily”). When they discover her body, it seems as if things can’t get much worse—but this is just the beginning. Most of the story is told from Jana’s point of view, with a few scenes focused on the case’s lead detective, Alphonse Simmons. As she comes to the realization that her life is a lie, Jana is sometimes tiresome and sometimes brave, ringing true to American motherhood: doing laundry, fixing dinner, putting up with her own hypercritical mother, arranging LaRissa’s funeral instead of her 16th birthday celebration. Jana’s journey—from collapsing in shock and drowning her guilt in wine to determining to learn the truth no matter what, doggedly pursuing retribution for LaRissa’s torment, and finding the courage to create a new life of purpose—is ultimately moving. With characters that are mostly well drawn, lifelike dialogue, and brisk pacing, Kovar’s novel is a compelling read that’s hard to put down.
A gripping tale about a devastated mother trying to find justice for her daughter.Pub Date: May 21, 2023
ISBN: 979-8393676186
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
Hokey plot, good fun.
A business executive becomes an unjustly wanted man.
Walter Nash attends his estranged father Tiberius’ funeral, where Ty’s Army buddy, Shock, rips into him for not being the kind of man the Vietnam vet Ty was. Instead, Nash is the successful head of acquisitions for Sybaritic Investments, where he earns a handsome paycheck that supports his wife, Judith, and his teenage daughter, Maggie. An FBI agent approaches Nash after the funeral and asks him to be a mole in his company, because the feds consider chief executive Rhett Temple “a criminal consorting with some very dangerous people.” It’s “a chance to be a hero,” the agent says, while admitting that Nash’s personal and financial risks are immense. Indeed, readers soon find Temple and a cohort standing over a fresh corpse and wondering what to do with it. Temple is not an especially talented executive, and he frets that his hated father, the chairman of the board, will eventually replace him with Nash. (Father-son relationships are not glorified in this tale.) Temple is cartoonishly rotten. He answers to a mysterious woman in Asia, whom he rightly fears. He kills. He beds various women including Judith, whom he tries to turn against Nash. The story’s dramatic turn follows Maggie’s kidnapping, where Nash is wrongly accused. Believing Nash’s innocence, Shock helps him change completely with intense exercise, bulking up and tattooing his body, and learning how to fight and kill. Eventually he looks nothing like the dweeb who’d once taken up tennis instead of football, much to Ty’s undying disgust. Finding the victim and the kidnappers becomes his sole mission. As a child watching his father hunt, Nash could never have killed a living thing. But with his old life over—now he will kill, and he will take any risks necessary. His transformation is implausible, though at least he’s not green like the Incredible Hulk. Loose ends abound by the end as he ignores a plea to “not get on that damn plane,” so a sequel is a necessity.
Hokey plot, good fun.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781538757987
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
