This auspicious tale’s intriguing hero has the potential to shake up the techno-thriller genre.
In this novel, the daughter of a super-spy joins the Outfit, an elite clandestine organization, but it may not be a perfect fit.
Three months after leaving Princeton before completing her master’s degree in neuroscience, Alicia Yoder is immersed in training to be an agent in the Outfit, following in the footsteps of her adoptive father, Levi. He had rescued Alicia and her sisters from the streets and placed them with Grandma Yoder in a Philadelphia Amish farming community. She is at once plagued by self-doubts about her performance and haunted by a violent incident of which she has no memory. She is shocked to learn that she killed one of two intruders one night, an incident that the Outfit covered up: “If what she had seen of the Outfit was any indication, they were capable of far more than she had ever imagined.” She will find out just how much more when she is sent on a training mission with a senior agent to Taiwan. The assignment is to find out what is hidden at a secretive facility called New Arcadia and why the Chinese would risk destabilizing relations with America and starting World War III to obtain it. From The Manchurian Candidate–style memory implantation and cool mission names like Dragon’s Breath Protocol to self-destructing briefcases, this story skillfully evokes 007 and the Mission: Impossible franchise. Alicia makes a memorable first impression (she bests her fellow agents in a challenge involving a WALL-E–type robot), and between her abilities and self-doubts, she engenders a strong rooting interest. Her memory lapse is something of a nonstarter in the context of this tale (The protagonist was introduced in Rothman's 2022 book, Multiverse, which is excerpted at the end of this work, along with a preview of the next Alicia Yoder novel, Operation Thrall). And the writing could be sharper (the phrase “the world grew dark” is used twice to diminishing effect). But this Crichton-esque techno-thriller efficiently blends international intrigue and spy action with science elements.
This auspicious tale’s intriguing hero has the potential to shake up the techno-thriller genre.Pub Date: June 20, 2023
ISBN: 978-1960244161
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Primordial Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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