Fans of Jack Reacher will love this saga featuring two badass heroes, though only one eats raw chicken for breakfast.
Wilson’s third installment in his Jackson Wade and Dog series follows the former Delta Force operative and his giant canine as they protect an American pop star performing in Thailand.
Jackson “Jax” Wade is enjoying a quiet life living as a “gentleman farmer” growing rice and apples in Chiang Mai alongside his Kuchi dog (fittingly called Dog), with whom he shares a deep and inexplicable psychic connection. When he’s asked to protect Rosie Tick—a popular American singer performing in Chiang Mai—he accepts, knowing that a delusional stalker whom Tick already has a restraining order against may be nearby. Wade stops the assailant before he can accost Tick as she’s partying at a local nightclub after the show, but the brutal beat-down is captured on video by numerous patrons, and the stalker is so humiliated that he vows revenge. Complicating matters is the wastrel son of an American senator (who has aspirations of running for president of the United States) who owes a substantial amount of money in gambling debts to a ruthless Russian crime cartel. To save his own skin, he tips the Russians off with details of a jewel-smuggling operation run by Lily Sullivan, a powerful businesswoman nicknamed the Queen of Jade. Sullivan hires Jax after she’s blackmailed. With numerous criminal groups targeting Wade, he uses his deep connection with his almost supernatural dog to lay down some karmic retribution.
The author delivers a page-turning blend of military fiction and mainstream thriller in this work. In addition to his breakneck pacing and adeptly choreographed action sequences, Wilson has an effortlessly fluid writing style. The elite level of understanding, experience, and military insight the author—a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force—brings to the table is obvious. Here’s just one of countless examples: “I carried a Beretta M9. I like the Sig Sauer P365, but I’ve never used it in a close-in gunfight. In the [Special Operations Group], my primary weapon was a suppressed Sig Sauer MCX-SPEAR LT. It had a telescoping stock and held a twenty-round mag.” While the numerous plotlines get a bit convoluted in spots, the strength of Wilson’s prose compensates. He’s acutely aware of the power of a good phrase—so much so that every chapter is titled with a particularly memorable quote from its text. Additionally, most chapters include revelatory, bombshell-delivering sentences, any one of which could serve as a perfect catchphrase for book cover copy. (Here are just a few examples: “If you hunt the pack, the pack hunts you”; “What can the Tiger Master do for you?”; “If you come for the Queen, don’t miss.”) Wade’s brief carnal experiences, while entertaining, seem a bit unnecessary and unsustainable—but that may be the point. (From one love interest: “Like always, time is against us, and our paths are going in a different direction. You and Dog are where you belong, as I am.”)
Fans of Jack Reacher will love this saga featuring two badass heroes, though only one eats raw chicken for breakfast.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2025
ISBN: 9798268808865
Page Count: 374
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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