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
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
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