This trio of charming cheaters will beguile readers.
Spurious siblings and a well-coiffed psychic work million-dollar cons in this debut thriller.
Marin County’s top-producing realtor, Victoria Clifford, has a net worth of nearly $10 million, but not all of it was earned selling pricey real estate. Her swindling sideline accounts for most of her fortune. A busy lady, she does find time for spa treatments, the occasional “celebratory sniff” of coke, and trysts with a variety of men, some married, some not, but all hot. “To think some women settled for just one man,” she ponders. Nor has she settled for committing just one scam. She now plans her sixth takedown of a vulnerable wealthy woman. Maribeth Simmons needs to sell her $5.3 million home. Her husband left her in California for a man in Missouri. Stylish Victoria takes Maribeth under her crooked wing, gets her to a hair stylist, and updates her wardrobe from twin sets and khakis to flattering bias-cut dresses. Next, Victoria takes her out on the town, where she meets and falls for handsome Rufus McCain, the latest alias of Victoria’s brother, Theo. Soon, Maribeth consults with atypical psychic Vera Peterlin, a handsome woman with an elegant chignon and a professional office. Thanks to Victoria, Vera knows a lot about Maribeth. What Maribeth doesn’t know is that Vera is Theo and Victoria’s aunt. The psychic encourages Maribeth to invest in Steeplechase Enterprises, a nonexistent company that Theo tricks her into thinking is a winner. The title of Roberts’ engaging book works on two levels. Victoria is a real estate agent, and, unbeknown to her, there’s an FBI agent on her trail. Suspense builds as the FBI attempts to ensnare Victoria and her family, just as they have entrapped Maribeth and her money. Tension escalates as the family members make increasingly more mistakes in their con, and guilt takes the edge off their victories. Strong characters, humor, and twists contribute to an immensely readable thriller.
This trio of charming cheaters will beguile readers.Pub Date: March 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73277-477-3
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Easy Riter Press
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
