A unique, enticing angle on a missing persons case that will keep readers guessing.
DeGrandpre’s small-town police procedural centers on an unusual suspect.
Deputy Leia Temper of the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Department in Colorado is tasked with a variety of responsibilities, and whether she’s responding to a wildfire or looking for a missing girl, trouble is sure to follow. One of her cases involves the disappearance of 15-year-old Linda Reo. Linda (aka the Cinnamon Girl “after a witness described her reddish-brown hair as cinnamon-colored”) seems to have vanished without a trace in a wildlife area known as Sands Lake. Leia and Sheriff Tom Early are called to Sands Lake with reports of someone suspicious carrying a camera; they find an accountant named Michael Vogel who is indeed taking pictures, but he seems to be nothing more than a harmless nature photographer. Later, Michael is assaulted. He winds up in the hospital with a head injury and memory lapses. Oddly, nothing has been taken from him—not even his camera. Michael has a hard time recalling exactly who he is, and when he looks at what’s on his camera, he’s horrified to discover questionable photos of small children. Did he really take those pictures? Could he really be a predator? Michael’s problem is certainly an intriguing one—what to do when you discover that you may be a monster? Michael is not particularly likable or unlikable, and readers must continue turning the pages to find out what the man is all about. Meanwhile, Leia exchanges gunfire with bad guys and tries to put the pieces together. It all makes for an engrossing yarn, but some instances of repeated information chafe; for instance, readers already know why Leia and Tom are at Sands Lake when they explain, “Somebody made a complaint about someone suspicious in the area. They mentioned a man with a camera.” This is a minor quibble; the novel succeeds as a fascinating exploration of guilt that transcends the typical crime story.
A unique, enticing angle on a missing persons case that will keep readers guessing.Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2026
ISBN: 9798992102253
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Sad Story Press
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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