A propulsive plot and engaging characters help make up for some awkward writing.
Buchanan’s third Sean McPherson novel again pits Sean “Mick” McPherson and the forces of good against the archvillain Georgio “The Bull” Gambino and his lethal henchmen.
This thriller begins when a hired valet is killed by a car bomb at Mick and Emma Benton’s wedding at the Pines & Quill retreat in the picturesque village of Fairhaven, not far from Bellingham Bay in Washington state. The backstory for the murder involves many killings—all orchestrated by the vengeful Gambino—including more than one attempt to kill Mick and Emma. The star of this particular show is Gambino’s protégé, Toni Bianco, a stone cold killer passing as a Bellingham police officer—not the only Gambino mole in the BPD. (Gambino’s soldiers are everywhere and can be identified by the “Family First” tattoo on their lower backs.) More violence ensues, in Bellingham, San Francisco, and New Orleans. After much violence and death and a bang-up conclusion, the good guys come out on top, but barely. The kicker, though, is that Georgio is still out there, untouched and plotting (of course, there is yet another sequel, Iniquity, in the works). All the backstory this requires isn’t always gracefully interwoven. What’s more distracting, however, is that as the plot unfolds, characters recount details that they—and readers—already know well from earlier parts of the book (“including Kevin Pearce, the valet who died in the explosion when he moved Mick and Emma’s Jeep at the wedding”). This kind of needless repetition happens more than once, and it feels not just odd, but oddly scripted. The characters’ speech can also seem unnatural: They speak not of “Gambino” but of “Georgio ‘The Bull’ Gambino,” as if respecting trademark law. That said, there are many engaging characters. Mick’s brother-in-law is a superb chef who prepares tantalizing dishes. Except for the occasional murder, the Pines & Quill seems a real Eden, lovingly described as such. And if Gambino is a ruthless antagonist, Buchanan lightens the plot with appealing palate cleansers such as a canine romance.
A propulsive plot and engaging characters help make up for some awkward writing.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-68463-194-0
Page Count: 312
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2022
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
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