An ideologically simplistic but engrossing Christian thriller.
A kidnapping tests a preacher’s faith in this novel.
McIntosh’s story opens with every husband’s worst nightmare: a kidnapped wife. Northeast Mississippi preacher Alan Livingston gets a message from his brother, Gary, a police detective. During a subsequent phone call, Gary tells the preacher that Alan’s 7-year-old son, Riley, showed up at the house of the detective and his wife, Beth, in a panic. Riley informed the couple that his mother, Anna, told him to run. Gary investigated and concluded that Anna was abducted. Alan consults with his brother and other friends in order to find out all he can about the crime. They soon apprehend a man named Larry Reed, who’s involved with the abduction just enough to give Alan an ominous warning: The kidnappers harbor a deep hatred of preachers. The author regularly shifts the thriller’s focus to show readers Anna’s experience; she’s unharmed but steadily guarded by an armed woman named Mrs. Bosco. At one point, Anna hears one of her kidnappers say: “The fewer Christians in the world, the better the world will be.” In the days that follow, Alan retreats to his church’s religious compound in the backwoods of Tishomingo County except when he’s fulfilling his preaching duties. McIntosh unfolds these two plot strands with a good ear for dialogue, although the casual pace will surprise many readers; they may also wonder why Alan is working and even going fishing while his wife’s fate remains unknown. Likewise, some will find the persecution narrative the author works into the plot strange. Alan confidently reports things like “About 75 percent of all religious intolerance is directed at Christianity,” “One out of nine Christians experiences persecution,” and “Persecution is coming to America and has, in fact, already started here.” But the faith that sustains Alan and Anna through their ordeal will appeal to McIntosh’s fellow Christians. In addition, the author’s orchestration of the larger plot against the preacher is well executed, and the cast is full of intriguing characters.
An ideologically simplistic but engrossing Christian thriller.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-973698-07-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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