A brisk and edgy tale of a young man struggling to do what’s right.
A petty criminal in 1970s New York City gets mixed up with an increasingly dangerous organization in this series-starting thriller.
Jake Barnum has spent most of his first 24 years in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood making trouble, mostly with minor thefts or nights that landed him in the drunk tank. At a Halloween party in 1978, he falls for Marilyn Monroe—or, rather, a woman wearing a mask that resembles the Hollywood star. This is her persona as part of the Desire Card, and she ropes Jake into the group, as well. The Card members, who all wear masks that look like celebrities, abide by a simple slogan: “Any wish fulfilled… for the right price.” Jake quickly learns that club activities aren’t very different from those in his criminal life, as they entail threatening people and dealing drugs. Things get more complicated for Jake when it turns out that his elderly, thuggish boss is the Card’s targeted rival. He finds it hard to trust anyone; some of the wishes that the Card fulfills involve murder, and someone in the organization is plotting a coup. Still, Jake is smitten with Marilyn, so if he wants to escape, he’ll need to find a way that they can both be safe. Goldberg, the author of Vanish Me (2022), offers a gritty, suspenseful story in this novel. Although the Card is a straightforwardly criminal organization, its members are mysterious and unnerving. They’re almost always masked, wearing a “frozen expression” that makes them even more dubious. Despite his flaws and wavering morals, Jake will garner readers’ sympathy; his ill brother, who relies on full-time care, needs surgery, and Jake fights to keep him and his best friend from harm. The author’s concise prose gives momentum to the narrative, which carries over into 1980. Copious pop-culture and historical references effectively ground the time period, from a beloved 1978 cinematic musical to news of the Iran hostage crisis. A doozy of an ending lays out a fairly clear path to the next series installment.
A brisk and edgy tale of a young man struggling to do what’s right.Pub Date: June 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68549-085-0
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Rough Edges Press
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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