Sisterhood is powerful in surprising ways in this twisty, satisfying thriller.
Breaking up isn’t just hard to do—it can be fatal.
The Blacksmith sisters have very different personalities—perfectionist Vera and chaos agent Ana often clash. But they’re bound by tragedy, having been orphaned after their mother was convicted of murdering their father, then died in prison herself. Vera and Ana were raised by their aunt, Agnes, a florist who also made traditional potions and teas for cramps, hot flashes, and other female ailments. She led The Cove, a group of similarly interested women, and hoped one of the sisters would eventually take over its leadership. But by the time this novel begins, Agnes is long gone and Vera and Ana have moved on. Ana hops from job to job and man to man while Vera is laser focused on her businessman husband, Brad Kline, and their teenage kids, fierce Coraline and goofball Grant, all of whom she tracks with digital devices. The sisters’ past comes back into play, though, when Vera hosts a brunch “ex-orcism” to celebrate Ana’s breakup with her latest bad boyfriend, Paul Hayes. He owns a high-powered advertising firm and has a rumored tendency to sexually harass his employees (or worse). Amid the mimosas, a police detective arrives looking for Ana, to let her know Paul’s body has been found in a shallow grave in a remote park. Things go from bad to worse when a guest, Ana’s college bestie Iggy Caine, who recently gave birth to her first child, faints. Though she recovers quickly, she soon falls ill and is hospitalized in a coma as her adoring husband, Brock (another of Ana’s exes), agonizes at her bedside. And one other thing—Ana had previously met the detective, Timothy Bandeau, via a sex-with-no-strings app called HookUp, but neither of them is talking. It seems everyone who knew Paul has reason to want him dead, but it’s hard to imagine who would harm sweet, guileless Iggy. As the intricate links between the crimes become clear, Unger keeps the suspense in high gear, skillfully swinging among several vividly portrayed first-person narrators.
Sisterhood is powerful in surprising ways in this twisty, satisfying thriller.Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9780778360056
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Park Row Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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