A dynamic cast of characters headlines this grim but absorbing mystery.
In Stetz’s thriller, a struggling alcoholic digs into his brother’s accidental death—which may have been murder.
Conrad “Connie” Keen was just a kid when his older brother, Kenny, died. Kenny had been partying with friends on the Ocean Beach pier in San Diego and apparently fell to his death. Connie was so shaken by the fatal event that he ultimately became an alcoholic. He perpetually fears what he calls the dark lottery, “strange, freakish, horrific deaths” like tripping into a dishwasher filled with knives—even reading about such a death can send him on a bender. (His diet consists of little more than cereal and peanut butter, as he’s too fearful of eating other foods—salmonella poisoning from eggs may be rare, “but it happens”). One day, a woman named Lucy brings Connie news: Her late sister, who was at the pier that night, confessed on her deathbed that Kenny was, in fact, pushed. That’s disturbing enough to throw Connie into another bender, and it does. When he recovers, he vows to track down a potential murderer. He has little to go on, as Lucy’s sister said nothing about who actually pushed Kenny. So, Connie peruses his brother’s yearbook, looks for details in newspaper articles, and tries to get his hands on the police report. Any one of the names he unearths could be a suspect or a witness, even if they only heard about something out of the ordinary. With advice from his best friend, Angel, and welcome support from Angel’s fiancée, Maria, who helps interview a few people, Connie gets closer to the truth, and possibly closer to a killer.
Fascinating, meticulously-developed characters fuel Stetz’s novel. Connie is the quintessential flawed hero; his incessant boozing grows curiously affecting as he seemingly oscillates between apathy and an apparent desire to stop drinking (“And then I woke up and again and didn’t repeat. I decided I was done. No more bender. Sometimes, it hits that way. You know it’s enough”). Connie rubs shoulders with a memorable cast. His family includes biologist sister Kate, who’s largely dismissive of Connie (both in general and of his amateur investigation), and his twin brothers who, due to years of drug abuse, are cognitively disabled. Angel and Maria function as a surrogate family—Angel, who owns a house-painting business, regularly hires Connie for jobs, and the couple shows their friend a great deal of compassion and patience. The mystery will surely hook readers as Connie learns of another significant name and a possible source of information (some relevant individuals aren’t so easy to find, and some may not be telling Connie and Maria everything they know). The narrative’s most prominent attribute is its moodiness. Kenny’s death is a haunting enigma, and whether it’s the result of an accident, suicide, or murder, it remains an unsettling tragedy, the strongest indication of the “dark lottery spin of the wheel” that so often occupies Connie’s mind. It all culminates in a wonderfully tense final act and a gratifying denouement.
A dynamic cast of characters headlines this grim but absorbing mystery.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2026
ISBN: 979-8234167873
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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