A fun, fresh take on a SF trope with enough surprises to keep readers guessing.
Busch’s SF thriller spans 70-plus years, from World War II into the new millennium.
Unsuspecting sailors aboard the USS Eldridge in 1943 are the subjects of an experiment conducted by the United States Navy in which their ship physically disappears then reappears; the experiment goes awry, killing many and wounding several others, including Third Mate Peter Smithwick, whose legs must be amputated at the knees. The narrative flashes forward to present day North Carolina, where religious handyman and all-around nice-guy Orvin Littney meets his new neighbor, the mysterious Geoffrey Cannon. While out on a walk, Orvin nearly dies of a heart attack, and as he hangs in the balance between life and death, Geoffrey miraculously saves him. Such miracles explain why, Orvin soon learns, Geoffrey has a cult following in the self-help and alternative philosophy world. Such a dedicated following, in fact, that Geoffrey has been known to romance his female sycophants. The problem is, the women who sleep with him keep ending up murdered under mysterious circumstances. Geoffrey likes to be rough, but he hasn’t killed anyone, and the forensics gathered confirm as much. But readers soon learn soon there’s more to the story when the author reveals just who Geoffrey is: the very Peter Smithwick who nearly died on the USS Eldridge and, by all rights, should be in his 90s by now. And yet—Geoffrey is a young, hale man. Once readers meet Geoffrey’s “handler,” the enigmatic and extraterrestrial “Edward,” the mystery only gets foggier—oh, and there is also Bigfoot to contend with: “Not a bear. But huge, and he could almost hear the rumors…Bigfoot. Sasquatch. Yeti.” There is a lot going on in this novel, but the snappy prose and a suspenseful plot make for an exciting read, and the mystery will keep readers turning the pages. The well-drawn Geoffrey and Orvin are sure to become favorites.
A fun, fresh take on a SF trope with enough surprises to keep readers guessing.Pub Date: April 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781964024042
Page Count: 352
Publisher: UBiQ Press
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2024
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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