An interesting premise that relies too heavily on the reader’s ability to accept the preposterous.
An opera singer who has finally gotten her big break is tormented by an understudy who might be trying to kill her.
You don’t need to be an opera fan to follow the plot of Richter’s new suspense novel, which is set in the New York opera world, but you do need to suspend more than a little disbelief. The story follows Kit Margolis, an aspiring singer, who has finally landed the title role in a new and adventurous adaptation of the 1960s Jane Fonda film Barbarella (actually kind of a fun idea) with a chamber opera company. Originally an understudy, Kit secured the part when the original star was cast in La Traviata at the Met. Not everyone in the company is sure Kit can play the part, but she's determined. Unfortunately, her sexy new understudy, Yolanda Archambeau, is equally set on ousting Kit from the role by any means necessary, starting with but not limited to poisoning her tea and—maybe?—leaving a dead rat with a knife stuck through its body on Kit’s doorstep. As their rivalry escalates, Kit finds herself inexplicably drawn to Yolanda and pulled into her life. Then a murder rocks the opera company, and Kit takes on the role of crusading detective trying to unlock too many dangerous secrets. A character who refuses to go to the cops when she’s sure someone is trying to kill her is required for this particular plot to play out, and Kit’s unlikely behavior is almost certain to try the reader’s patience. What’s even harder to accept is that a struggling opera singer would jump into full detective mode for no particular reason or why she would feel compelled to help someone who has probably been trying to injure or murder her. The book is best early on, when Richter leaves you guessing about Yolanda’s actions, but as motivations become clear, the novel ends on a ridiculous note that falls sadly flat.
An interesting premise that relies too heavily on the reader’s ability to accept the preposterous.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9780593685709
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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