A smashing conclusion to a grim, disquieting, and memorable trilogy about a shadowy group.
A boarding school may be the site of a diabolical organization in this final installment of a thriller series.
Karl Morgan is keeping his head down in San Francisco in 2031. Years ago, he and Dawn Flint, a teen he befriended, faced a furtive group that had been guilty of, among other crimes, systematically raping women. More than a decade later, Karl now believes these same “faceless men” have returned. When a strange woman shows up in his apartment, she demands to know Dawn’s whereabouts and is more than willing to torture Karl for the information. Around the same time, Elijah Wellsford is a reluctant new enrollee at The European School in Missouri. He endures hazing, but it’s the boarding school’s atypical traits that are most unsettling, like the fact that teachers evidently fear certain students. As Elijah learns about the school, he begins to suspect that someone always has eyes on him and that leaving is likely not an option. The boy has definite ties to Karl and Dawn, which may bring the latter out from apparent hiding. Dawn’s showdown with the sinister organization is inevitable, and surprises, it seems, await everyone. This last volume of a somber trilogy is thick with atmosphere. For example, raspy voices in a supermarket make Karl understandably paranoid, and the school was once a prison, which is just how it feels to Elijah. Other scenes are outright horrifying, such as a “deformed” figure crawling on all fours toward a person unable to move. Although even new readers will decipher the organization’s twisted intentions, its specific origin is a shocking revelation. Field’s prose is keen but understated, tangibly describing perpetual dread (waking up “gasping for breath and drenched in sweat”) and implying much of the violence. The stellar ending offers both finality and a lingering unease.
A smashing conclusion to a grim, disquieting, and memorable trilogy about a shadowy group.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 265
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
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
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