An often engaging, if unevenly executed, tale of action and intrigue.
Ewing presents a high-octane SF thriller with a government-research conspiracy at its core.
After Adam Barnett of Defiance, Arizona, is struck by lightning, he awakens with a gap in his memory and an unfamiliar dog licking his face, whom he calls Mop. Shortly afterward, he’s attacked by “something out of a nightmare” that he’s unable to identify. He manages a narrow escape with Mop, who turns out to be a runaway government research animal linked to a dangerous web of secrets. Simultaneously, Maj. Blain Jacobson, a U.S. Army Ranger with extensive combat experience and high-level analytical skills, uncovers more than he bargains for when he looks into a fatal incident at a government research facility in North Scottsdale, Arizona. Elsewhere in the state, Victoria Stewart, the daughter of a deceased U.S. Marine veteran and the survivor of an attempted car bombing, desperately searches for a man she knows only as “Dark,” whose voice haunts her in her dreams, as he orders the killings of real people who later turn up dead. These three strangers’ fates intertwine as they try to root out the truth of their tangled predicaments—but, in each case, one misstep could prove fatal. Ewing excels at immersive, pulse-pounding action scenes with visceral detail. The clipped, no-nonsense language works alongside meticulous attention to specifics: “He was in the northwest corner. If he headed toward the south lobby, he might run into whomever or whatever had shut off the lights. The loading dock was behind the killers to the north, so that was out.” As the characters sustain significant injuries that affect their ability to function at top capacity, the stakes become clearer. The book occasionally has trouble juggling its three complex, integrated plotlines, and it sometimes meanders; some characters’ interactions feel awkward at times as well. But the various players’ motives are sympathetic enough to sustain the plot, and a satisfying conclusion leaves room for the story to continue.
An often engaging, if unevenly executed, tale of action and intrigue.Pub Date: April 2, 2026
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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