This second installment deftly reinforces an intelligent, absorbing supernatural series.
In this sequel, a young vampire seeks revenge against the vicious and powerful empress responsible for her mother’s death.
It’s been six years since Orly Solodnikova lost her mother, who committed suicide by sunlight. Bloodline empress Mirela Cobălcescu persuaded her to do so by promising not to kill her daughter. Orly has spent those years in Japan with fellow vampire Berthold Leitz, who had been in love with her mother. But Orly still wants retribution upon returning to Los Angeles with Berthold and Mayuko Mochizuki, Orly’s mortal servant who’s become her closest friend. Surprisingly, Mirela invites Orly to Romania for the upcoming Communion of the Ancients, when the centuries-old Ancients offer their blood to the empress. Mirela wants to utilize Orly for her scribbles, a pre-vampirism skill in which she sees people’s deepest secrets. The empress suspects traitors among the Ancients, including the Eternal—the ones who have survived over 2,000 years. But Mirela also wants to be Orly’s lover. Indeed, Orly craves romantic love, and potential suitors are lacking, as the 22-year-old vampire is stuck in a 12-year-old body. Although Mirela vows to steal a woman’s body for Orly, trust between the two comes in small doses. Orly, meanwhile, discovers possible allies among the Eternal but must remain cautious, as Mirela, at 5,000-plus years, is the oldest of her bloodline. The key to defeating her may lie with enigmatic Ji’Indushul, whose name repeatedly appears in the Ancients’ scribbles and whom Orly will have to find.
Tomoguchi’s sequel is just as somber as the series opener. Orly, for one, is so desperate for affection that she gets in contact online with a pedophile. Even intimate moments between Mirela and Orly, which aren’t excessively graphic, still involve an “underdeveloped,” prepubescent body. Nevertheless, endlessly enthralling characters populate the story. The lengthy opening in Japan aptly establishes Orly’s rock-solid bond with Mayuko, who joins her in Romania. But Orly isn’t the most compassionate protagonist; as she must regularly feed, she kills mortals with callousness and no remorse. The author rarely strays from well-known vampire lore: The immortals drink blood, sleep in coffins, and have such powers as a mesmerizing gaze. But as Orly has been a vampire for a mere decade, her abilities are limited, and she gradually acquires new skills, including telepathy. At the same time, there’s the Oblivion, a memorable dreamlike place that only certain vampires can reach and which renders them vulnerable. Occasional humor, though minimal, somewhat alleviates the story’s bleak tone: After Orly refuses to drink from a willing mortal savored by other vampires, Mirela dubs her a “blood snob.” Still, the unnerving moments take precedence. In one scene, Mayuko screams when she spots a blatant attack against Orly. But no one in Mirela’s castle immediately responds since a “mortal scream” is an all-too-common occurrence. As the story progresses, Orly questions her own motivations (perhaps she has genuine feelings for her enemy), ultimately leading to some indelible plot turns and a blistering denouement.
This second installment deftly reinforces an intelligent, absorbing supernatural series. (acknowledgments)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-578-55993-3
Page Count: 537
Publisher: Ink Bleed Books
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Yes, it has its playfully witty moments, but it’s a distinctly minor work in the author’s brainteasing canon.
Murder disrupts the filming of—what else?—The Word Is Murder, based on the first novel starring author Horowitz and his sometime partner, ex-copper Daniel Hawthorne.
With commendably dramatic timing, gofer Izzy Mays bursts into the middle of a pivotal shot on location at The Stade in Hastings to announce that Hawthorne’s been murdered. Of course, what she means (though Horowitz takes his time clarifying this ambiguity) is that David Caine, the rising star playing Hawthorne, has been fatally stabbed in the neck. Suspicion falls on James Aubrey, the agent Caine had just fired; Izzy, because Caine had caused her to be fired, too, though he ended up making his exit first; Ralph Seymour, the washed-up actor who’d returned from New Zealand to play Horowitz opposite Caine, his mortal enemy; and producer Teresa de León, who’s abruptly lost an important source of funding for the project; director Cy Truman; and screenwriter Shanika Harris, because why not? After Hawthorne builds meticulous hypothetical cases against several of these suspects, provoking Teresa’s apt rejoinder, “All those questions in the script and now you’re asking them for real,” he responds to Horowitz’s theory that he may have been the intended target after all by sharing a story from his early days as a private investigator in what ends up looking like the most elaborately extended red herring in the history of detective fiction. The two plots, past and present—or, to be more precise, past and present-day-adaptation-of-a-story-from-the-less-distant-past, are eventually woven together in ways only Horowitz’s most devoted fans will celebrate.
Yes, it has its playfully witty moments, but it’s a distinctly minor work in the author’s brainteasing canon.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9780063305748
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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