A dynamic convergence of politics, religion, and the supernatural, featuring a strong protagonist.
Clandestine operatives race to prevent an ancient threat from unleashing global destruction in Devere’s paranormal thriller.
The mythology surrounding the historic Knights Templar has inspired much popular fiction, including, of course, Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code (2003). Fans of the genre won’t be disappointed in this action- and character-driven debut novel, which offers a fizzy blend of religion, real and imagined history, recent current events, political upheaval in the Middle East, and supernatural horrors. The story opens in Paris in 2022, during the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral, which was nearly destroyed by fire in 2019. Workers make a shocking discovery under the broken flooring: an ancient iron sarcophagus with etchings of protective biblical warnings “against the forces of evil.” Witnessing the private opening of the sarcophagus are Ridley Samaras and her partner, Henri Michel, operatives of the CIA’s top-secret Osprey Division. The group’s off-the-books mission is to investigate bizarre, disturbing, and potentially world-upending phenomena. The mysterious sarcophagus fits the bill when the powerful jinn inside is unleashed, leaving destruction and bloodshed in its wake as it searches for its demonic brethren and pieces of an ancient artifact that, if joined, will have dire consequences for humanity. Ridley and Henri’s desperate race to stop it, in competition with a 700-year-old Templar splinter group’s deadly agenda, takes them from France to England, Italy, Syria, Portugal, Egypt, and finally to Jerusalem, “the city of ancient cities, the epicenter of faith for billions,” where forces target the intersecting holy places of three major faiths, threatening worldwide conflict. In Devere’s novel, readers will find that the decks are so thoroughly stacked with deliciously horrific manifestations of evil that there’s real suspense in wondering how good can prevail. There’s swift action, as well as lavishly described weaponry and tactical specifics, and the primary characters, led by Ridley, have enough individuality and well-integrated backstory to make them more than mere action figures. A few loose ends leave open a possibility for sequels.
A dynamic convergence of politics, religion, and the supernatural, featuring a strong protagonist.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2023
ISBN: 9798989542406
Page Count: 486
Publisher: Ox Devere
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This thriller’s eerie mood is deflated by a plot with more holes than a Halloween sheet.
Could making a movie about the disappearance of five women from an island reawaken an evil presence there?
Five dresses hang from the topmost limbs of an oak on a remote island in a Vermont lake. That memorable image marks a mystery from a century ago, when five women believed to have been part of a commune vanished forever. As this novel opens, another group gathers on the island to make a movie based on that tale. Marin Keane, the narrator, is surprised but thrilled to find herself cast as one of the leads; she’s a struggling actor whose biggest part so far has been “Bridesmaid with Eczema” in a drug commercial, so playing Daisy Rue, whose haunting diary is the basis for the movie’s script, could be a career-making move. Ronan Peters, the writer-director, is talented and, Marin notes, hot. His reason for gathering the cast on the island is a kind of boot-camp rehearsal: They’ll spend a week living there, wearing period clothes, and managing without internet or phone service. Oh, and holding séances. What could go wrong? Marin quickly meets the other women in the cast: regal character actor Julianne Brown, cool and competent Heather Benchley, bratty former Disney star Susie Hutchinson, and, striking awe in all of them, Violet Wright, a much-awarded Meryl Streep-ish figure who will play the woman who brought the others to the island, which she owned. They get to work, but soon enough someone disappears. The book’s plot, like the movie’s script, largely follows Daisy’s journal, and since the reader is supplied with pages-long sections of that journal, there’s not much suspense about what will happen next. There are some effective set pieces, such as the group’s first séance. But in its last quarter, the plot collapses into a muddle of #MeToo vengeance, improbable secrets, and jarring character reveals that is, as Marin says, “the most Scooby-Doo thing I’ve ever heard.”
This thriller’s eerie mood is deflated by a plot with more holes than a Halloween sheet.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798217044092
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 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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