A unique, action-filled blend of Cold War fears and incursions from alien worlds.
Aliens and politics make for strange bedfellows in Keating’s 1950s-set SF thriller.
Secret Service Special Agent Dean Cold is tasked with protecting U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower. Cold—a World War II veteran who studied philosophy and played quarterback at Harvard—is quick on his feet, which is certainly helpful during an assassination attempt in the Oval Office. (Though Cold saves Eisenhower, his partner is killed in the scuffle.) This was no ordinary attempt—upon close inspection, it is discovered that the two would-be assassins had devices connected to their spinal cords, which, when removed, self-destruct and turn into goo. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, one of these same devices is implanted in the body of 74-year-old Joseph Stalin; newly invigorated, he goes about ensuring that any of his possible successors are tortured and killed. The Americans learn about this through an operative. As Cold tells Eisenhower, whoever is behind the attempt is keen on “assassinating [Eisenhower], while seeking to perhaps control Chairman Stalin.” Ike sends Cold to investigate, and he assembles a team to do just that. Eisenhower warns him, “Dean, this could get weird.” It is certainly a weirdness that Cold is unprepared for, as it becomes clear that aliens are involved. The novel has an enticing premise and is packed with gunfights and conversational creatures—two aliens who speak with Cold admit to being impressed by the Declaration of Independence—a development that subverts what some might expect from a story about extraterrestrials. Some sections are lumbered with extraneous details and move slowly. For instance, Cold is a skilled piano player, which earned him the nickname “Keys.” However, when other musician characters mention playing together, as in, “I had mentioned to Keys here that perhaps we could play together,” it adds little to the story. Still, the novelty of the premise carries the day as readers will be eager to find out what else Cold might uncover.
A unique, action-filled blend of Cold War fears and incursions from alien worlds.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9798291484685
Page Count: 426
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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