A gripping spy thriller with an indelible cast.
An American gets pulled into a shadowy league of international sleeper agents in this novel.
Michael Trick is approached by a Russian man shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Trick’s parents were East German spies; he is now being activated as a sleeper agent in California, assigned to steal technology from his employer for the Russians. Trick goes to the FBI to report the mission, not out of patriotic fervor, but because his son is very sick and he can’t risk going to jail. The FBI assigns Trick a handler, and the bureau intends to use him to get to the people who activated him and possibly to a murderous Russian sleeper agent named Peter Kirov. Then other known sleepers start turning up dead, and it becomes a race to figure out who their Russian leader is and what the culprit’s agenda might be. The novel presents two parallel stories. Trick gets pressured to do increasingly heinous acts while the FBI trails him to get more information about his Russian liaison. Meanwhile, Kirov manages his list of hits and a domestic situation with tenants in his building. But then Trick’s shadowy contact sends him to kill Kirov. Trick and Kirov have a common enemy and forge an unlikely alliance as they struggle to free themselves from both the Russian sleeper agents and American law enforcement. Oster’s story is engrossing, but there are a few minor defects. Some of the technology and pop-culture references are a little too recent for the era, so the book isn’t always grounded in its period setting. The setup is purposefully vague, and there are a lot of characters and subplots, which can make the tale a bit hard to follow. Still, the narrative moves along briskly, and the characters are complex. Even Kirov, a coldblooded killer, has a compelling backstory that makes him sympathetic, and readers may root for the quiet romance he pursues with a neighbor. The suspense builds slowly, but as Trick gets in way over his head, readers will be on the edges of their seats.
A gripping spy thriller with an indelible cast.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
Another entertaining Aussie cozy for readers of Liane Moriarty—and fans of tough old ladies everywhere.
When her tabloid past comes back to haunt her, an 81-year-old Australian woman gets by with a little help from her friends.
When the neighbor child asks to interview her for a school project, Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick’s first line of defense is to shift little Persephone’s focus to another “old person” in their suburban Melbourne neighborhood, 93-year-old Ishaan Patel. Too late, says Persephone, he’s dead. This surprising information turns out to be true, as when she goes to check, Elsie finds the man sprawled lifeless on his kitchen floor. Her discovery of the body proves to be the first domino in a cascade of unwanted events, as her long-buried identity as Mad Mabel, the youngest convicted killer in Australian history, comes to light and creates a tidal wave of suspicion and media attention. Hepworth’s latest cozy domestic thriller uses the device of a YouTube documentary team determined to get Elsie/Mabel’s side of the story on the record for the first time, presented here in chapters alternating between Now and Then. In the present, cantankerous, sharp-tongued loner Elsie goes from having just one friend, the loyal Daphne Barton, to a web of close connections, including even a previously reviled dog she reluctantly inherits from the late Ishaan. In the past, a landslide of dead bodies and cruel twists of fate emerges to both justify and challenge the Mad Mabel moniker. If some aspects of the premise feel overfamiliar (cranky oldster’s frozen heart thawed by charming child), other elements are less well worn—a lovely pair of lesbians named Cess and Ness in the Then thread, for example. Those quirky suburban Australian neighborhoods just keep popping out the predators, bullies, shocking family secrets, and darkly charming surprises.
Another entertaining Aussie cozy for readers of Liane Moriarty—and fans of tough old ladies everywhere.Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9781250284549
Page Count: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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