A heavy, disturbing novel about the secret lives of powerful men.
A Los Angeles fixer gets in over his head in Pettijohn’s dark debut thriller.
Everyone in Hollywood thinks Melvin Ritkin is a competent tech expert—the kind of person whom celebrities call when their laptops get hacked and they need to make sure nothing ruinous leaks to the media. In reality, Melvin is a con man—the kind of person who secretly hacks someone’s laptop and then gets himself hired to fix the problems he’s created. “What I am is a dirty, slimy opportunist,” he explains, “a grifter and a liar, a catfish and a cyberbully. I enable deep fakes, spread vicious rumors, and sling bullshit far and wide on the almighty internet for whoever pays me the most.” (It goes without saying that Melvin isn’t even his real name.) After his latest successful scheme, he finds himself unexpectedly involved with prominent porn star Ruby, who’s been hired as a consultant for a movie. Its director, a famous, egomaniacal actor named Titus, has plans to make a big-budget adaptation of the Marquis de Sade’s transgressive erotic novel Justine. Melvin thinks that he might be in love with Ruby, and when she reveals to him she’s pregnant, he hopes to raise the baby with her. When Titus hires Melvin to help him make a personal problem go away, however, he’s drawn into a conspiracy of sex, lies, and murder so dark that it might cost Melvin more than his ruthless, calculating heart can bear to lose. As he notes early in the novel, “The naïve never know they’re being naïve….but it is essential to remember that anyone can be manipulated—even you.” Will he heed his own advice?
Over the course of this novel, Pettijohn’s prose, as narrated by Melvin, is sharp and confident. The protagonist’s keen observational eye and disdain for the villainous behavior of others will mostly win the reader over to his side. This makes it all the more disturbing when Melvin’s own bad acts slither onto the page: “I decided to look into ways to attain chloroform, as that was my best bet for peacefully solving disputes with Ruby: simply knocking her unconscious. It turns out you can make your own chloroform using basic household ingredients.” Dating a porn star apparently unlocks some deeper anti-social tendencies that Melvin was previously able to hide, even from himself. It’s an unsteadying book that’s not quite a satire but not entirely sincere, either. It features odious men behaving very badly to women—the protagonist included—and although the book seems on its surface to condemn these actions, it doesn’t go so far as to present a female character who isn’t treated as a sex object by men. The result is a grim read about compromised morals and self-delusion—one that’s not as depraved as the works of the Marquis de Sade, but neither is it quite as thoughtful (or as funny) as it seems to be aiming for. A heavy, disturbing novel about the secret lives of powerful men.Pub Date: July 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5445-3225-7
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Cordurouy Books
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A particularly nasty villain heightens the stakes in this thriller about a woman learning how to be her own hero.
An author is targeted by a fan who just can’t let her go.
Arden Bowie has had plenty of tragedy in her life, but now she’s finally on top. After her parents died when she was a teenager, she moved from Brooklyn to Ohio to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. She soon became part of their loving family and grew up to become a writer and bookseller. When her debut novel is published, she meets Dustin Dubecki at her first event. He showers her with praise, asks for writing advice, and wants to take her out for coffee. Arden tells herself he’s just a little awkward, but then he keeps showing up at her local events—and, even stranger, she’s sure she sees him lurking at her event in New York City. When he bursts into her apartment one night and assaults her, Arden’s calm life is shattered. Dustin gets a five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility; Arden spends most of that time rebuilding her sense of stability. Eventually, she moves to Oregon to start a new life where Dustin can never find her. But even though she has a beautiful home, a thriving career, a doting family, new friends, and even a potential love interest in a former cop named Gideon Riley, Arden can’t escape Dustin’s rage when his sentence is finally up. Roberts toggles between Arden’s point of view and Dustin’s, giving the reader occasional glimpses into his extremely twisted mindset. Although Arden’s attempts to escape Dustin are engrossing, the story stalls in the middle when far too many pages are dedicated to Arden purchasing and decorating a house. But the excitement picks back up when Dustin, a truly odious villain, re-enters the story. It’s also satisfying to see Arden grow into someone who refuses to be a victim, even as she deals with horrifying circumstances.
A particularly nasty villain heightens the stakes in this thriller about a woman learning how to be her own hero.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250413581
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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