A relentless descent into familial fears made manifest, both haunting and terribly familiar.
Anxiety metamorphoses into terror for a young Black woman fiercely protecting her own.
Like a good scary movie, this debut novel never fully explains the monsters within, but sharp portrayals, staccato wordplay, and an absolutely bloodcurdling atmosphere ameliorate the frustration of murky explanations for what follows. When we first meet 25-year-old Calla Williams, there’s not much sign from the outside that her world is falling apart, though she’s struggling at her job, trying to connect with a new boyfriend, and attempting to make a life for herself. Unfortunately, her two younger brothers, Dre and Jamie, are making it damn near impossible. With their father dead and their mother gone, the three siblings are stuck with each other, to everyone’s constant discontent. Middle sibling Dre means well, but he’s a flake who can’t be counted on to show up when it really counts. The real troublemaker is 16-year-old Jamie, full of a uniquely adolescent combination of bravado and recklessness, prone to trouble with school, drugs, and law enforcement. “It’s so hard keeping black boys alive,” Calla thinks, and her particular angst soon gets twisted into a scenario Jordan Peele might admire. When a racist cop stops Jamie at a civil rights protest, it looks like he’s about to be another fatal victim of violent injustice, but fate—or something darker—has other plans. When a spooky little girl eviscerates the officer and shortly after a terrifying series of encounters leaves Dre marked by strange, unexplainable wounds and Calla haunted by visions of a vengeful specter, they realize taking off may be their only chance at survival. As the trio flees to a remote cabin in the woods (always a good plan in a horror story), spooked readers may find themselves checking to see what’s gaining on them.
A relentless descent into familial fears made manifest, both haunting and terribly familiar.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781250906328
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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
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
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