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
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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