A cross-genre tale that’s intriguing, character-driven, and a little too packed.
A spy thriller meets legal fiction meets romance novel.
The book’s title refers to Belinda “Lyn” Larkin, a 60-year-old lawyer. Lyn is now daunted by the prospect of retirement and haunted by the one who got away: Jay Jackson, a Texas cowboy with an eventful past. After a stint in the CIA and a professional relationship with Lyn as her law firm colleague, he addressed their mutual chemistry on a passionate night together before disappearing from her life. The story follows Lyn as she closes a frustrating deal with oil corporation Global Trading, owned by the enigmatic private equity boutique Branoble. Meanwhile, Jay is reeling from the murder of his CIA mentor, Raymond Hatcher, which is connected to their off-the-books expedition in Spain years ago. In flashbacks, readers see Jay, seeking revenge for Raymond’s death, closely tailed by shadowy agent Anna Stegineo. When Lyn hears from Jay again, it is after he has apparently tied up some loose ends. Yet a tangled web of legal and political mysteries follows both protagonists along with a strange, colorful cast of characters: Ben Lufkin, Jay’s old agency handler; Patrick Brashner, the aggressive, misogynistic top dog at the law firm Stewart Baines; and Will Baines, legacy head of that firm. As the details of Raymond’s death become clearer to Jay, he grapples with putting his past behind him while Lyn confronts the sinister goings-on in the legal world. The tale opens and closes with a verse from T.S. Eliot’s “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Characters are sometimes bound by their “decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse,” but the poem’s thematic relevance to the story could be stronger than a hasty use of the verse. Still, Zvonkovic excels at showcasing the complexity of his female protagonist, with Lyn enduring the tribulations of being a woman in a male-dominated field. The portrayal of Mexico, a setting for Lyn and Jay’s romance, is questionable, with ironic questions strengthening stereotypes rather than generating humor. The vast cast of characters and complex legal plot will confuse many readers, leaving them unsure of the novel’s genre. While the author’s strength lies in characterization, the talewould benefit from a streamlining of the cast and storyline to better focus on the engaging, eponymous hero.
A cross-genre tale that’s intriguing, character-driven, and a little too packed.Pub Date: June 14, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73527-514-7
Page Count: 276
Publisher: DOS Perro Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2022
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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