A twisty and often riveting thriller.
A real estate appraiser is forced to evaluate her own life in Priamos’ dark thriller.
Catia “Tia” Drakos was formerly a handwriting analyst for California police departments, but she walked away from the profession because it made her too anxious. Now she’s a real estate appraiser to the rich and powerful in the Hollywood area. One recent client is Elise Davis, a friend from childhood who’s the daughter of famed actor Carson Davis. Elise goes missing shortly after Tia appraises her family’s mansion; shortly afterward, Tia receives the first in a series of mysterious notes. The first reads “He’s here early,” which may refer to her older fiance, Hugh, or to someone else entirely. Soon, Los Angeles police detective Antonio Ramirez, who’s investigating Elise’s disappearance, contacts her as a person of interest. Tia already has plenty of drama in her personal life: She’s been divorced less than a year from history professor Kyle Wilkins over the question of having children, and he’s in a relationship with unstable grad student Becca, who has a restraining order against her from a previous flame. As the notes that Tia receives get more threatening and escalate into assaults, she must appraise those around her and figure out who isn’t whom they seem to be. Over the course of this mystery novel, Priamos successfully develops a protagonist who has engaging flaws. It’s also intriguingly unclear if Elise's abduction is part of a revenge plot that’s targeting Elise, Tia, or a monied old-Hollywood family. In addition, Elise’s family offers up several viable suspects, including Carson’s soon-to-be-ex third wife as well as Elise’s estranged brother and her own prickly, pregnant spouse. Oddly, though, Tia never asks the key question of who would want her to be personally involved in solving the mystery. Still, this is an engrossing, layered volume despite the fact that Tia seems somewhat distracted at times by her own journey of self-discovery.
A twisty and often riveting thriller.Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 979-8985430912
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Power Punch Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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