An engaging mix of humor, mystery, history, and geologic curiosities.
Old treasure, murder, and beautiful women send a geologist across the Arizona desert into Mexico in Terret’s mystery.
Nick Cameron, a “consulting geologist,” is having dinner in a “desiccated dump in the flat Sonoran Desert” in Arizona when in walks Theo, a dame “hotter than a Soviet drill bit at the bottom of the Kola Superdeep Borehole.” She’s got “emerald eyes,” “marathoner thighs,” “stratovolcano breasts,” a stash of valuable agates of mysterious origin, and a Smith & Wesson snub-nosed revolver. “This dame knows what she’s doing,” Nick says to the reader, who is cast in the role of confidant; it’s a tricky literary device that, for the most part, the author pulls off. Soon, Nick is embroiled in a mystery involving the agates’ provenance, crooked marketing consultants, plundered museum funds, a beautiful industrial spy, a treasure-trove of Mexican gold ore with historic connections to Pancho Villa, and a “homicidal hobo” intent on making Nick his next victim. Terret successfully weaves the disparate threads of the complicated plot together, layering the narrative with fascinating, well-informed geological references and leavening the proceedings with humor, evoking the lingo and brash attitudes of old detective pulp fiction novels throughout. Women are “dames” (and mostly set dressing), their legs are “gams,” guns are “roscoes,”, and murder victims are “whacked.” The author conveys real feeling with Nick’s origin story: At age 13, he discovered his grandfather’s stash of 1950s detective novels, and the two bonded over their mutual enjoyment of the genre, using the books’ tough-guy lingo whenever they got together until the older man’s death. Terret falters, though, when Nick’s enigmatic friend Frankie, a Navajo-Italian jewelry designer who calls the shots in the multi-pronged investigation, briefly takes over the narrative from Nick to explain his actions—this sudden switch breaks Nick’s conversational connection with the reader and undercuts Frankie’s mystique with unnecessary exposition. The text includes Nick’s clue lists and a few line drawings of code symbols, floor plans, and landscapes to clarify plot points and add visual interest.
An engaging mix of humor, mystery, history, and geologic curiosities.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781684632886
Page Count: 280
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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