An exhilarating sophomore installment in an engrossing series.
In Goldberg’s thriller sequel, a proficient killer goes to great lengths to escape his powerful former employers.
U.S. Army sniper J.D. Storm seems lost after an injury led to his honorable discharge. He finds himself recruited into a secret organization in New York called the Desire Card, in which leading operatives wear masks that resemble famous people; they promise to fulfill any paying client’s wish. Apparently, most of these wishes are assassinations, and J.D.’s special set of skills makes him useful to the Card. When he’s finally fed up with the group’s lack of morals, he quits and flees to the West Coast. He hides out in the small town of Killenroy, Washington, and, in no time, hits it off with a local woman. He’s hard up for cash and agrees to pull a heist with dull-witted and untrustworthy criminals. All the while, J.D. anticipates that the Card will find him and send killers who can hide in plain sight, as he won’t be able to recognize them unmasked. The best option may be to take the fight to the Card’s leader, “Clark Gable,” and take out his entire lethal team. This follow-up to Immoral Origins (2022) retains its predecessor’s edge, but features much more action, as J.D. faces off against several operatives, some to the death, in blistering sequences throughout. The story is fraught with tension, as well, as readers can never be certain when a double cross or a Card operative will pop up. Goldberg’s razor-sharp dialogue keeps the story moving and entertaining: “Hell, J.D., trouble’s all I know. What’s a little more?” Although the cast is largely enigmatic, J.D., whom this sequel introduces, is a sharply developed protagonist. Flashbacks to his Army days and his growing ire toward the Card, reveal a believable, sympathetic, and appealing figure who just wants a “real life” all his own.
An exhilarating sophomore installment in an engrossing series.Pub Date: July 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68549-091-1
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Rough Edges Press
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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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