A grim and engrossing procedural with a stellar cast.
A convict takes over her identical twin sister’s life in New Orleans, only to arouse the suspicions of a clever, intuitive detective in Zappa’s debut thriller.
Veronica Westbrook has never met her twin, Ann Livingston, as they were adopted at birth by two separate families. While serving time in prison for running a con on a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, Veronica receives a letter from Ann, who hopes that they can connect. Veronica has no interest in a reunion, but she does respond favorably to the fact that Ann has a wealthy husband, Ben. She concocts a plan to steal her sister’s identity, which, soon after her release, entails shadowing and then murdering Ann. Veronica subsequently fakes a car accident and resultant amnesia—as Ann—so she can convince Ben and his family of her identity long enough to swipe millions. However, homicide detective Tammy Jo Crowder thinks that there’s a possibility someone ran “Ann” off the road, but as she investigates further, she starts to think that the accident victim intentionally drove her car into a tree. Then she finds a notable discrepancy in some medical records suggests that the woman claiming to be Ann isn’t Ann. Ben, meanwhile, is also wary, as he’s noticed subtle differences in his wife’s personality. Complicating Veronica’s plan further is that fact that her former cellmate, Sarah Booth, is out of prison; she’s privy to the con and demands a piece of the pie. After transferring funds to a Swiss bank account, Veronica stages a suicide for a clean escape. But the cautious Crowder digs deeper to prove Veronica is on a crime spree.
Zappa fills this often somber but energetic tale with wonderfully complex characters. Veronica isn’t a one-note villain; she’s a sociopath who doesn’t experience a normal human range of emotion, and the story touches on her background (namely, regarding her and Ann’s biological mother). At the same time, Crowder isn’t a squeaky-clean hero; at one point, for instance, she acquires the aforementioned medical records illegally. She’s nevertheless an admirable detective who resists when her superiors want to close the case; readers will, of course, cheer her on, knowing that her conjectures are often spot-on. As Veronica’s scheme ultimately takes her out of the United States, new characters appear to great effect, including someone who’s gunning for the con woman, Will Goodman. The dialogue-heavy story predominantly consists of Veronica executing con-game manipulations and Crowder mulling over case details, but it generally maintains a fast pace. Indeed, Zappa largely eschews graphic depictions of sex and murder. Even during the final act, which includes confrontations between multiple characters, the author doesn’t linger on violence. Unfortunately, there are some blunders that are particularly noticeable as the detective delves into the twins’ history. For example, the age of Ann’s daughter, Meg, doesn’t match her date of birth.Although this novel works as a stand-alone, the author leaves open the possibility of a sequel.
A grim and engrossing procedural with a stellar cast.Pub Date: July 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-922329-04-2
Page Count: 356
Publisher: AIA Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.
Second of the Walter Nash thrillers—following Nash Falls (2025)—in which the remade hero seeks vengeance.
Due to urgent circumstances, Nash has bulked himself up to become the “muscled and tatted fighting machine” now known as Dillon Hope. His antagonist is Victoria Steers, a global drug dealer who wants him dead. Not realizing his new identity, she enlists Hope to free her mother, Masuyo, from a prison in Myanmar. As an incentive, she shoots one of her associates and threatens to frame Hope for the murder unless he complies. She also wants him to find Nash. He in turn wants to kill Victoria to avenge the death of his innocent daughter, Maggie. “If I go down,” he muses, “I’m taking others with me. Starting with Victoria Steers.” He learns that Victoria had killed all her siblings to eliminate business competition. But as heartless as Victoria is, her mother, Masuyo, is even worse. In league with the Chinese government in a perverse plan to kill as many Americans as possible through fentanyl overdose, she shows contempt for Victoria for her perceived weaknesses. Readers won’t find many happy family relationships here: mother-daughter, father-son, husband-wife—all fraught. Hope’s employer, who accompanies him to Myanmar, is a billionaire chief executive with a dodgy past (i.e., probably killed his father). And there’s a mega-billionaire with an astronomical IQ and ditch-deep morals who, putting it mildly, does not have America’s best interests at heart. As a teenager, he’d defeated two world chess champions; as an adult, he regards his dealings with the world in terms of master chess moves. Only one character seems truly decent and credible—Hiroko, Victoria’s former nanny and lifelong companion, who provides Hope with valuable insights into the Steers’ background, which is partly Chinese. Searing grudges, simple evil, and not-so-simple misunderstandings carry the cast through this complex, action-packed plot. This sequel ties out the loose ends dangling in Nash Falls, which would be helpful to read first. To get to the requisite ending, though, Baldacci takes pains to surprise the reader. It works but often feels forced.
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781538758021
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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