A fun thriller with compelling strains of personal drama.
Cover’s sequel novel finds Dr. Thomas Simpson, the director of communications for Sessions University, in treacherous political waters as a campus lab produces a possible cure for cancer.
Provost Samuel Kravitz died by suicide, and his family hired the Blaylock Agency to investigate why a “man of consummate ego” would do such a thing. Newly installed university president Jack Wentz warns Thomas that he’ll soon be interviewed by a detective, and he worries that he’ll inadvertently reveal what he knows of a plan to place spies in Sessions’ international centers. Better news comes from Zoltan Vastag, a Sessions cancer researcher and Thomas’ best friend, who’s apparently succeeding in treating cancer in mice. This results in “pharmaceutical companies...falling all over themselves to get into bed” with the university. Frank Lusby, Thomas and Zoltan’s colleague, suspects that Jack will spin this development to enrich himself. At home, Thomas notes that things are unsettlingly quiet now that his teenage daughter, Sarah, is attending the Sessions Center for Gifted and Talented Youth. Also, his son, Tommie, who has Asperger syndrome, has turned his obsessive nature from firetrucks to computers. Pleasantly complicating things is Alicia McDonald, the striking detective assigned to interview Thomas. Cover adds a fresh murder, a coverup, and a packet of scandalous photos to amp up his second Sessions University thriller. The well-drawn characters, however, frequently steal the show, including Zoltan, who’s like an uncle to Sarah and Tommie, and billionaire Mark Berger, whose Boston accent (“Howaryah?”) entertains as often as it grates. The author gleefully has Alicia and charming reporter Emily Sayzak go after Thomas as if he were the last man on Earth; however, Thomas, especially at home, often experiences a sense of loss that resonates: “The family room was empty. My daily reminder of Sarah’s new maturity. Why did she have to grow up?” Overall, such domestic scenes feel truer and more engaging than the thriller plot.
A fun thriller with compelling strains of personal drama.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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