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
A frighteningly good debut.
Mysterious guests overstay their welcome in this fresh take on the haunted house trope.
Eve Palmer makes the biggest mistake of her life when there’s a knock on the door from a man who says he grew up in her house. Against her better instincts she invites him and his family inside, but a 15-minute look around turns into a world of trouble when she can’t get them to leave. First the Faust family’s young daughter disappears in the basement; then a storm hits and the roads are blocked, giving them no choice but to spend the night. Soon rooms appear altered, strange odors waft through the house, and a toy chimp from Eve’s childhood seems to be sending her a warning: "Once they’re in, they never leave." Kliewer’s original and extremely scary story gathers elements inspired by authors like Shirley Jackson and classic horror films including Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He’s created a can’t-look-away imaginary world in which people and places aren’t what they appear. Readers will be as shaken as Eve, who fears she’s suffering from delusions when an apparition warns her that the Fausts—and even her partner, Charlie—aren’t who they say they are. Inserted between the book’s chapters are "documents" that lay out evidence collected by conspiracy theorists who believe what’s happening to Eve has nothing to do with delusions. This alternate storyline, written in the style of Reddit—Kliewer’s novel grew out of a novella he posted there—feels jarring at times, as we’re reluctantly pulled away from Eve’s gripping tale. The conspiracy theorists’ creepy posts aren’t quite as hypnotic, but they solidify the plot’s premise and neatly tie up Eve’s predicament. Fans of the surging horror genre will think twice about opening the door when somebody knocks.
A frighteningly good debut.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781982198787
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
More like a con than a truly satisfying psychological mystery.
What should be a rare horror—a woman gone missing—becomes a pattern in Kubica's latest thriller.
One night, a young mother goes for a run. She never comes home. A few weeks later, the body of Meredith, another missing woman, is found with a self-inflicted knife wound; the only clue about the fate of her still-missing 6-year-old daughter, Delilah, is a note that reads, "You’ll never find her. Don’t even try." Eleven years later, a girl escapes from a basement where she’s been held captive and severely abused; she reports that she is Delilah. Kubica alternates between chapters in the present narrated by Delilah’s younger brother, Leo, now 15 and resentful of the hold Delilah’s disappearance and Meredith’s death have had on his father, and chapters from 11 years earlier, narrated by Meredith and her neighbor Kate. Meredith begins receiving texts that threaten to expose her and tear her life apart; she struggles to keep them, and her anxiety, from her family as she goes through the motions of teaching yoga and working as a doula. One client in particular worries her; Meredith fears her husband might be abusing her, and she's also unhappy with the way the woman’s obstetrician treats her. So this novel is both a mystery about what led to Meredith’s death and Delilah’s imprisonment and the story of what Delilah's return might mean to her family and all their well-meaning neighbors. Someone is not who they seem; someone has been keeping secrets for 11 long years. The chapters complement one another like a patchwork quilt, slowly revealing the rotten heart of a murderer amid a number of misdirections. The main problem: As it becomes clear whodunit, there’s no true groundwork laid for us to believe that this person would behave at all the way they do.
More like a con than a truly satisfying psychological mystery.Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-778-38944-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Park Row Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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