Interrogates and exposes the everyday fears that women face—while still checking all the thriller boxes.
In trying to do the right thing, a woman puts herself and her family in danger—and is forced to take extreme action to protect herself.
After a long shift at the hospital where she works as an ICU nurse, Meghan Michaels trudges through the cold Chicago evening to attend her divorce support group, where she’s surprised to run into Natalie Cohen, a woman she hasn’t seen since high school. While they were never close friends, Meghan encourages Nat to give the group a chance when she expresses doubts. She can’t help but notice the ugly bruise on Nat’s temple; having experience with victims of domestic abuse in her line of work, Meghan is concerned. She remembers a previous case when a battered woman came in to the hospital but refused to press charges; she was later murdered by her husband. Speaking of dangerous men, there has been a recent rash of attacks on women by a man who hasn’t been caught, so Meghan is particularly on her guard. She lives with her teenage daughter, Sienna, who’s often home by herself when Meghan is working. One of Meghan’s patients, a woman who purportedly jumped off a bridge and is now in a coma, may have been fleeing the assailant—and either fell or was pushed. These violent storylines converge over the length of a novel in which, of course, not everyone is who they seem. A twist is expected in any Kubica novel, and this one is pretty successful. Meghan is particularly strong and thoughtful, so she makes both an attractive protagonist and a formidable antagonist for those who will threaten her and her family. She has her secrets and will do anything to protect them, but she also has a sense of justice. Ultimately, she wants to make the world a safer place, and the novel encourages us to view that as a worthy goal, whatever the path.
Interrogates and exposes the everyday fears that women face—while still checking all the thriller boxes.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780778308065
Page Count: 329
Publisher: Park Row Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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