A complex, fast-paced mystery.
A detective investigates a homicide related to a new, powerful drug in Eskin’s mystery novel.
Washington, D.C.–based detective Marko Zorn arrives at a car fire that turns out to be a homicide; the person in the driver’s seat died in the blaze. Zorn’s then summoned to meet with local crime boss Sister Grace, who tells him there’s a new, lethal drug on the streets called Speedball, and that the gang dealing it is organized and dangerous (the ringleader goes by “Dr. Love”). Marko is able to identify the fire victim as a biochemist who worked with pharmaceuticals, including a painkiller called Zemlon. The investigation turns perilous when Marko confronts the mysterious Dr. Love and is assaulted by a couple of men likely under his command. Still, he continues to follow leads, both regarding the street drug Speedball and the massive pharmaceutical company, Altavista, that makes Zemlon (and is working on a new drug to replace it). Marko gets stonewalled by everyone: Altavista, the FDA, and the new police chief, Kelly Flynn. It quickly becomes clear that the new medication is likely dangerous, and that the company making it is not above taking out anyone who is working to prove it’s unsafe. Marko investigates the connections between the pharmaceutical company, the street gang, and the shady capital management company that finances the pharmaceutical company. The mystery is complex, although it seems clear from the beginning that there’s a link between Speedball and the pharmaceuticals. Marko is a compelling character; he’s the archetypal cop who doesn’t always play by the rules, which puts him at odds with the powers that be in the police department, and he sometimes uses subterfuge and violence to get the information he needs to solve his case. (“I know your type,” the new chief announces. “You’re vigilantes at best and psychos at worst. There’s always one in every police department. Men—and they’re always men—who think they’re above the law.”) He maintains readers’ sympathy, though, because it’s never in question that he’s ultimately working on the side of good. The tightly constructed story moves along at a brisk clip.
A complex, fast-paced mystery.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781608095704
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
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