Moody and compelling.
An atmospheric thriller set in a Hong Kong convulsed by student protests and China’s heavy-handed response to them circa 2019.
Adrian Gyle is a veteran British reporter, a 20-year resident of Hong Kong who has access to the city's elites thanks to the charming, reckless Jimmy Tang, his old university friend. The plot revolves around the disappearance of a young woman Adrian meets through Jimmy; she’s both a child of wealth and influence and a fearless frontline street protester (her legs bear splotches from the blue dye authorities fire from water cannons to disperse and identify activists). But to call this a mystery may mislead a bit. The book is like a whodunit turned inside out, with what might usually be background—the precisely and evocatively drawn setting, especially—at center and the plot mostly crowding in around the edges. Hong Kong comes fiercely alive on the page, and Osborne’s command of complex history, geography, and politics (and poetry) is nuanced and sure-handed. He captures, too, Gyle’s feeling of wistful alienhood, the jadedness that approaches but never quite gets to cynicism. Some of the detail—especially about fashion, food, and drink—does pall a bit, but Osborne’s strategy is mostly successful: The reader senses early on that the disappearance, like the larger mystery it’s embedded in, the case of Hong Kong’s fate, won’t—can’t—have a simple solution. Decisive conclusions, it seems implied, require an arrogance like that Tacitus referred to (Osborne quotes it here) when he wrote about invaders who “make a desert and call it peace.” Solutions belong only to those who can ruthlessly enforce them, and the reader—like the battered-from-all-sides Gyle and like the ordinary residents of Hong Kong—can have no illusions about that.
Moody and compelling.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-24232-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
The emotional depths of this steamy romance will catch you by surprise.
A modern-day marriage of convenience resurrects old feelings between a burlesque-club owner and a baseball catcher.
Madden Donahue has only had eyes for Eve Keller since their paths first crossed back in high school in Rhode Island. In their youth, he was her self-designated protector, defending her against small-minded bullies who subjected her to relentless teasing about her dad’s strip-club business. Though she was the town’s punching bag, Eve eventually decided to embrace her heritage, taking over the club once she was old enough and turning it into a classier burlesque joint. Recently, however, Eve’s life has been turned upside down by two new arrivals—her niece and nephew are living with her while her sister spends some time in rehab. Keeping the burlesque club afloat is hard enough, but having two more mouths to feed is putting Eve’s bank account under major strain. Then, when Madden is signed as a catcher for the New York Yankees, he comes to Eve with a surprising suggestion: Marry him for access to his health insurance, so she and the kids will be taken care of. Despite the fact that Eve has secretly reciprocated Madden’s feelings for a long time, she only agrees to his proposal on the condition that their marriage stay a secret—and that they dissolve it after six months when the kids go back home. Now that Madden can finally call Eve his wife, however, he’s not about to let her slip through his fingers, but the clock is ticking on how long he’ll have to convince her that this marriage isn’t just for convenience’s sake. Bailey’s latest contemporary is brimming over with the spice and dirty talk that have become her trademarks, but Eve and Madden’s road to romance is a quieter, more emotional one than usual for her, rooted in internal dilemmas rather than external obstacles. There’s no question about whether these two will figure it out, and that assurance carries through the narrative, resulting in a breezy, low-stakes, yet surprisingly poignant read.
The emotional depths of this steamy romance will catch you by surprise.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780063380882
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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