An engrossing, if subdued, psychological tale.
In this novel, a woman’s search for meaning takes on new urgency when a stranger takes up residence in her garden house.
Miranda is a recent empty nester who isn’t quite sure where to devote her time and energy now that her children are out in the world. She decides to fix up the garden house on her property to use as an art studio—she used to paint before giving it up to be a wife and mother—but when she mentions her idea to her husband, Ben, she learns the building is soon to be inhabited. Unbeknown to Miranda, Ben has rented out the garden house to William Priestly, a somewhat mysterious friend of a friend. “A teacher or journalist or something,” says Ben. “From out East. New York, I think.” At first, Miranda is just happy that the garden house is in use—but then her sleep begins to be disturbed by unpleasant dreams. Ben thinks Miranda’s nightmares—which frequently involve children and shadowy predators—are inspired by her trips dropping some things off at the local teen shelter. As Miranda begins to notice William’s strange behavior—his odd hours, his comings and goings—she can’t help but wonder if he has something to do with her visions. After all, what do they really know about this stranger? Mahkovec’s prose is sharp and fluid, building tension in small domestic scenes: Miranda “heard a car door slam and went to look out the bedroom window. William had parked in the rear of the garden house. When he opened the back door, golden lamp light poured outside, and then disappeared when he shut the door.” The premise is a fun one, and Miranda is a finely drawn character, believable even as she treads frequently into the realm of clichés. The author does not take as many risks with the plot as readers would like, but neither does she deliver the sort of traditional thriller that the audience expects. She delves thoughtfully into empty nest syndrome and midlife evaluations, but the novel never really gets as dark as it seems like it wants to be. The result, while not disappointing, is not completely satisfying either.
An engrossing, if subdued, psychological tale.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-946229-12-0
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Bublish, Inc.
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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