An occasionally over-the-top, hyper-violent adventure that generates plenty of lasting intrigue.
Debut author Horvath presents an action thriller about a mysterious and deadly organization.
Einarr “Sledge” Laukkanen has quite a resume: In addition to his ability to survive in a brutal Russian prison, where inmates were forced to fight to survive, he also played in the NBA for ten years. He now spends his days in a rugged part of Minnesota known as the Boundary Waters, working for the wealthy Maldonado. Sledge is devastating in a fight; he dislikes firearms, and his weapon of choice is a sledgehammer (of course, his fists work pretty well, too). His sometimes girlfriend, Kiira, is attacked; she’s a victim of an entity called the Labyrinth, which is something like a video game—with real people and real violence. Essentially, participants carry out assigned tasks such as kidnapping and murder for money. They’re paid in cryptocurrency via the dark web, and, when they succeed in their missions, they rise in rank. Those who fail are punished. But why would anyone target Kiira? While Sledge is able prevent Kiira from suffering further harm, he needs answers. The premise will capture readers’ interest early on: What kind of organization pays people to commit horrible crimes, and why do they do it in Minnesota? The book has plenty of action, with most confrontations leaving someone dead or grievously hurt. The story includes some fantastical elements that compromise some of the seriousness—for instance, Sledge can take down pretty much anyone he wants, and he even manages to knock out an armed guard by breaching a barricade bare-handed (“I have a hell of a punch. The fence wire exploded inward”). What chance do the bad guys have against such a foe? But there’s still a mystery to unravel alongside such silliness, and it’s one that will keep readers guessing until the very end.
An occasionally over-the-top, hyper-violent adventure that generates plenty of lasting intrigue.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2023
ISBN: 9781738598403
Page Count: 329
Publisher: The National Library of New Zealand
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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