Surprises add to a strong, scary story filled with questionable characters.
A small-town West Virginia journalist gets mixed up with the wrong people and goes from writing obituaries to causing the need for them.
In Mallow’s thriller, news reporter Cabel Walsh says his mom meant to name him Caleb, but she was dyslexic. Yet she says her son “rebranded” himself as “Cabel” in grade school. Truth seems frequently fuzzy in this plot-driven tale about the week Cabel, roughly 10 years out of high school, reconnects with his childhood friend Troy Mason. Out of drug rehab and on the path to becoming an alcoholic, Troy vows revenge on nursing home director Adriane Knotts. She fired him for fighting with a resident. Cabel drives unemployed Troy to inquire about an “odd job” with El Oscuro—aka “The Recluse”—and his deadly associates. Rather than applying for a job, Troy offers to pay for one: the death of Mary Knotts, Adriane’s mother. Soon afterward, El Oscuro produces Mary’s obit. It’s two years old, but El Oscuro still demands payment. He says if Troy didn’t do due diligence to discover Mary was already dead, that’s his problem. It becomes Cabel’s problem, too, when Troy refuses to pay. Cabel, like Troy, becomes a target of El Oscuro and his associates. Surprisingly, the situation brings out killer instincts in once-bullied Cabel. When an injured victim curses at him, Cabel sets him on fire, saying, “Disappointing last words.” Unexpected humor punctuates this tense and often grisly series opener. Conversations are well crafted, especially those between Cabel and schoolteacher Miranda Murray, who meet frequently at a local bar. Although she refrains from drinking on a school night, when the conversation turns to political matters, she says: “Oy, now we’re into politics. I think I may go ahead and have a drink now.” A minus is that some sentences demand editing; for example: “The rugged Appalachian hills silhouetted against the darkening quintessence and soon it would dip into an unrelenting shade of black that only the unpopulated vacuum of the country could supply.”
Surprises add to a strong, scary story filled with questionable characters.Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-940249-18-6
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Cressen Books LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2020
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 satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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