A fresh, sometimes offbeat take on the 1930s gangster novel.
Not only is Depression-era getaway driver Eddie “Nickel” Terhune on the FBI’s Most Wanted list: His headstrong lover Savannah Cody is out to kill him—literally—for running out on her.
For Savannah, it’s a no-brainer to take Alford—her 12-year-old son by Nickel—on the road with her. Raised by his recently deceased grandmother, the boy barely knows his mother and has never met his father. A botched jewelry store robbery in Ohio that leads to a dead cop and Nickel wounded and locked up in Indiana puts a crimp in Savannah’s homicidal plan. She hatches a new scheme to save Nickel from the electric chair by marrying him—and claiming him for herself. But after he’s busted out of jail by fellow members of the Brady Gang, led by the temperamental, trigger-happy Al Brady, a John Dillinger wannabe, her feelings soften. An expert in cars, maps, and weapons who’s previously served time, Nickel isn’t a bad guy. But after Nickel flees on his own to Maine, with both Savannah and the law in pursuit, he’s joined by Brady and agrees to do a bank job with the gang. For Alford, who grew up seeing himself as “the bastard son of a criminal,” all of this is difficult to process, especially since Toland, the FBI agent on the case, seems like a character straight out of his favorite book, Dan Hyland, Police Reporter. Recurring sections from Toland’s questioning of the humorously hard-wired Savannah are entertaining but slow the pace. And Savannah’s bookish nature and designs on becoming a famous writer stretch credibility. But Koryta, a crime writer who’s thrived on genre departures, does so again in lively fashion. How can you not dig a femme fatale who digs Thoreau?
A fresh, sometimes offbeat take on the 1930s gangster novel.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2026
ISBN: 9780316535991
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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