The author ups the ante in this entertaining thriller series outing starring a troubled hero.
In this novel, a National Defense Agency operative races to pull the plug on a team of hackers extorting power plants.
“Computer geek” Ronny Wolstein is in deep debt to Presser, who finances his scams. That means he’s got a problem. But he also has a solution: installing ransomware in several hydroelectric power plants, which will cause catastrophic destruction until the powers that be meet his payment demands. He works with two former high school “besties” who are in as dire financial straits as he is. Engineering guru David Owens’ daughter requires expensive medical treatments. Shirley Chen, providing security, is a “horribly disfigured” veteran. The money from Wolstein’s plan will pay for her plastic surgery. The trio preys on unwilling accomplices who are as vulnerable as they are, such as Kenneth Cramer, a plant worker with a gambling problem that causes him to be delinquent on his child support payments, threatening his visitation privileges. After two devastating ransomware attacks, Capt. KD Thorne of the National Defense Agency and her partner, Warrant Officer Jeffrey Blunt, are brought in to stop the hackers. Thorne carries baggage of a different type, but it’s no less burdensome. She struggles to reconcile “the stupid things she’d done after her husband had left her.” Though the two appear to be in “a good place,” they are still divorced. This is the third Thorne procedural (as in the grand Columbo tradition, readers are clued in to Wolstein and company’s doings and follow anxiously as Thorne and Blunt get ever closer to him and Presser). Generic title aside, this novel is a briskly enjoyable read. Chen’s character is particularly well written and psychologically attuned. She is desperate to “fit in” and not be “a freak show who could only attract pervs who wanted to kiss her scars while they fucked her or take her from behind so they wouldn’t have to look at her.” Series fans invested in Thorne’s fraught relationship with her ex-husband will welcome progress on that front. In addition, King deftly builds anticipation for a fourth volume.
The author ups the ante in this entertaining thriller series outing starring a troubled hero.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9781952711138
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Blurred Lines Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence.
A series of mounting complications leads to yet another fight to the death between the discarded intelligence agents of Slough House and the morally bankrupt head of MI5.
As Jackson Lamb’s motley crew on Aldersgate Street struggles to cope with the deaths of River Cartwright’s grandfather and mentor, intelligence veteran David Cartwright, and their dim, beloved colleague Min Harper, new troubles are brewing. Diana Taverner, who runs the British Intelligence Service from Regent’s Park, is being blackmailed by former MP Peter Judd to do his bidding. Nothing untoward about that, of course, but this time, Judd’s demands, backed by a compromising tape recording, are more pressing than usual. So Diana reconvenes the Brains Trust—Al Hawke, Avril Potts, Daisy Wessex, and their ex-boss Charles Cornell Stamoran—whose last assignment was to serve as the contact for psychopathic IRA informant Dougie Malone while turning a blind eye to his multiple rapes and murders, which were really none of the Crown’s business. Taverner’s new assignment for the Brains Trust is the assassination of Judd. Since all these developments are filtered through the riotously cynical lens of Herron’s imagination, nothing goes as planned, and when the smoke clears, the fatalities don’t include Judd. Now that Judd knows he has as much reason to fear Taverner as she does to fear him, Lamb offers to broker a peace meeting between them which Slough House computer geek Roddy Ho will keep secret by knocking out 37 security cameras around Taverner’s dwelling. What could possibly go wrong?
The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781641297264
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Soho Crime
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
