A thriller with a thought-provoking premise but flawed execution.
The lives of a retiree, his genius granddaughter, and two serial killers intersect in Dallas.
Newly retired, recently widowed Nick Vanderoff left a busy corporate life as a marketing analyst to become a teacher. He still consults for the Dallas Police Department’s new analytics unit, hoping to predict crimes before they happen. He also plans to spend time with his daughter Mary and his granddaughter Holly. Holly, a 12-year-old prodigy who has skipped ahead and is now in high school, struggles to fit in with her older classmates. She’s working with her grandfather to create a predictive analytics program to help her school’s football team, which makes her stand out and gain the attention of her (much older) crush, but it also places her in harm’s way. Math enthusiast and substitute teacher David Bar David has a self-imposed revenge mission, driven by grief and madness. After his wife and child died in a high school shooting, he and his younger brother, Sol, have gone on a killing spree. David, Nick, and Holly cross paths once Nick’s police work thwarts David’s carefully laid plans; a violent, inevitable showdown ensues. Grigsby’s thriller features a unique setup that uses marketing analytics as an investigative tool and features a face-off between math and statistics. The unlikely heroic duo of granddaughter and grandfather is a fun, unusual twist. David’s and Sol’s complex mental health issues (Sol is the survivor of domestic sexual abuse), however, are explored in simplistic, exploitative ways; none of it adds up. Clumsy writing and wooden dialogue also mar the storytelling. Still, much of the book focuses on Nick’s inability to relate to emotions or form deep connections, and his awkward attempts to change that are funny and earnest.
A thriller with a thought-provoking premise but flawed execution.Pub Date: June 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5092-4173-6
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: April 6, 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
BOOK REVIEW
Come for the forensics, stay for the nonhumans.
A Christmas bout between Kay Scarpetta and the Phantom Slasher.
But first, Scarpetta, Virginia’s chief medical examiner, has to figure out how software designer Rowdy O’Leary died. Fished from the Potomac River on Christmas Eve six years after a hit-and-run driver left him permanently disabled and a week after he plunked down the cash for a pricey emerald ring, he fell off his fishing perch and drowned—or did he? Scarpetta’s examination of his body is cut short by two disturbing developments: the discovery of an unidentified woman’s remains buried on the grounds of Mercy Psychiatric Hospital, and celebrity TV reporter Dana Diletti’s report that the red-eyed ghost associated with the Slasher’s three murders has floated through the window of her home. She’s got video, too, and the apparition looks real and scary. The final blow to Scarpetta’s plans for a Christmas getaway with her husband, Secret Service forensic psychologist Benton Wesley, is an attack on an Alexandria home that kills Mercy psychiatrist Georgine Duvall, who used to treat Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy Farinelli, and nearly kills graduate student Zain Willard, White House intern and nephew of presidential candidate Sen. Calvin Willard. This time the Slasher’s ghost has been spotted on the scene by none other than Pete Marino, head of investigations for the medical examiner’s office and Scarpetta’s longtime sidekick. Cornwell’s use of Robbie, Zain’s robotic dog, and Janet, Lucy’s AI companion, integrates the futuristic elements she favors more successfully than in her recent outings. But the solutions to all these mysteries will leave fans of the venerable franchise pursing their lips rather than gasping in awe.
Come for the forensics, stay for the nonhumans.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781538773963
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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