An engrossing, twisty spy caper with strong relationships that enrich its central mystery.
When terrorist attacks imitate the events of a bestselling novel, a spy couple goes undercover to figure out if the book’s ghostwriter is in on the plot in Miller’s series thriller.
Caleb Rye is a teacher with overdue bills, an unsellable fantasy novel, and a baby on the way. He accepts an assignment to ghostwrite a political thriller from an anonymous outline, and he’s delighted when The Payback sells well. But just as he starts work on the follow-up, real-world terrorist incidents occur that mirror the plot of his book. Meanwhile, married couple Leo Connelly and Sasha McCandless-Connelly must go undercover at Caleb’s school and figure out if he’s connected to the attacks. They quickly discover a decades-old plot involving international conspiracies, archives, and a forbidden romance. This is the latest in a series of legal thrillers following Sasha’s adventures, but it also marks a new chapter: After years of operating in different classified departments, Sasha and Leo are finally working together in the top-secret organization called The Lighthouse. Their mutually supportive partnership provides the story’s emotional core, balancing the story’s global affairs with the comfortable mundanity of married life. Miller takes time to establish Sasha and Leo’s routine with their twins, Finn and Fiona, giving the story relatable stakes. It’s also refreshing to read a spy novel in which the central romance is loving and passionate without veering into familiar Mr. & Mrs. Smith territory. Similarly, Caleb’s relationship with his wife, Emmaline, captures the thrill and terror of new parenthood with more grace than most legal thrillers would offer. The central mystery is cohesive and concise, and Miller’s background as a litigator helps to ensure that the legal details are accurate without alienating non-lawyers. Although the book is likely best appreciated in the context of the 16 novels that have preceded it, even new readers will be instantly hooked, thanks to Miller’s expert characterization and gripping plot.
An engrossing, twisty spy caper with strong relationships that enrich its central mystery.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781961427280
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Brown Street Books
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.
A woman’s life takes a stunning turn and a wall comes tumbling down in this tense Cold War spy drama.
In Berlin in 1989, the wall is about to crumble, and Anne Simpson’s husband, Stefan Koehler, goes missing. She is a translator working with refugees from the communist bloc, and he is a piano tuner who travels around Europe with orchestras. Or so he claims. German intelligence service the BND and America’s CIA bring her in for questioning, wrongly thinking she’s protecting him. Soon she begins to learn more about Stefan, whom she had met in the Netherlands a few years ago. She realizes he’s a “gregarious musician with easy charm who collected friends like a beachcomber collects shells, keeping a few, discarding most.” Police find his wallet in a canal and his prized zither in nearby bushes but not his body. Has he been murdered? What’s going on? And why does the BND care? If Stefan is alive, he’s in deep trouble, because he’s believed to be working for the Stasi. She’s told “the dead have a way of showing up. It is only the living who hide.” And she’s quite believable when she wonders, “Can you grieve for someone who betrayed you?” Smart and observant, she notes that the reaction by one of her interrogators is “as false as his toupee. Obvious, uncalled for, and easily put on.” Lurking behind the scenes is the Matchmaker, who specializes in finding women—“American. Divorced. Unhappy,” and possibly having access to Western secrets—who will fall for one of his Romeos. Anne is the perfect fit. “The matchmaker turned love into tradecraft,” a CIA agent tells her. But espionage is an amoral business where duty trumps decency, and “deploring the morality of spies is like deploring violence in boxers.” It’s a sentiment John le Carré would have endorsed, but Anne may have the final word.
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64313-865-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
Fast-moving fun from start to finish.
A hijacked laser weapon threatens to ignite World War III.
The U.S. is testing the EAGL, or Enhanced Aerial Gunnery Laser, an airborne defense system that annihilates anything it hits. It’s so fast it “can shoot down a hundred ballistic missiles before they leave enemy territory,” it never runs out of ammunition, and it will “make ballistic missiles obsolete.” But a traitor named Ridley Wiles hijacks the plane that carries it, and he kills the crew. Radar contact is lost, and National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) salvage experts Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala undertake an urgent mission to find or destroy the EAGL before Russia or China lay their hands on it. Meanwhile, a smuggler named Ahab who specializes in dumping toxic waste is dying. He blames Kurt and Gushan, an officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and would like nothing better than to cause World War III before he dies. The action and excitement are damn near constant. The U.S. and China have begun joint operations on certain projects, and Kurt and Joe save Gushan’s life—barely—in the prologue. But Gushan’s superiors may later order him to hunt Americans down and kill them. He knows he owes his saviors a debt, but he is also loyal to his country and to the PLA, so he has a dilemma. The heroes are all that NUMA series readers have come to expect—smart, honorable, and resourceful under life-and-death pressure. They face attacks on the NUMA vessel Lyra, try to save a sinking ship, commandeer a cargo plane—Joe can fly it, but isn’t so sure about landing it—and hope Ahab doesn’t blow it out of the sky. As always in this series, the story is a high-stakes, brace-yourself adventure with admirable heroes who don’t shy away from the next challenge.
Fast-moving fun from start to finish.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217184972
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
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