No big surprises, but generally enjoyable.
In his 15th adventure, forensic pathologist Jack Stapleton stumbles into a terrorist plot in an unlikely location.
A doctor friend invites Jack to help with an autopsy in Essex Falls, New York, deep in the Adirondacks. Looking on the trip as a mini vacation for himself and his wife, he accepts. The corpse had until recently been a healthy man who then developed rapid neurogenerative symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s disease before his death. Jack arrives with thoughts of doing a quick autopsy and then cooking steaks on a grill, but more deaths occur. What’s going on? Is this the beginning of an epidemic? The story has three plot vectors: Jack; the Diehard Patriots, a small band of disgruntled militia wannabes who harmlessly fire their AR-15s in the deep woods; and four “Netherlanders” hired by the Diehard Patriots to train them. But the alleged Dutchmen are in fact Russian bioterrorists with their own nefarious agenda: To poison the town’s water supply as a pilot project that would eventually allow Holy Mother Russia to wipe out millions of Americans. They set up a lab to brew a poison based on a theta prion gene as they convince their D.P. hosts they are brewing beer. The “proof-of-concept field trial” has begun, but early results are uncertain. Meanwhile, they have killed several locals using Novichok, a Russian nerve agent. The plot is plausible, but the story simply isn’t scary. The D.P.s mainly serve as a device to get the Russians into the story, but they are otherwise feckless. And readers may not mind, but there seems nary a sentence that Cook couldn’t make more concise. Surely, he didn’t just phone this one in. That said, Jack does fine autopsies, as readers will discover in vivid detail. Early chapters engender more curiosity than dread among the good guys, though eventually there is a violent payoff. Readers and Russkies know all the crucial details long before the authorities, who summarize their findings in the epilogue.
No big surprises, but generally enjoyable.Pub Date: Dec. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9798217044931
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.
A woman fears she made a fatal mistake by taking in a blood-soaked tween during a storm.
High winds and torrential rain are forecast for “The Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire,” making Casey question the structural integrity of her ramshackle rental cabin. Still, she’s loath to seek shelter with her lecherous landlord or her paternalistic neighbor, so instead she just crosses her fingers, gathers some candles, and hopes for the best. Casey is cooking dinner when she notices a light in her shed. She grabs her gun and investigates, only to find a rail-thin girl hiding in the corner under a blanket. She’s clutching a knife with “Eleanor” written on the handle in black marker, and though her clothes are bloody, she appears uninjured. The weather is rapidly worsening, so before she can second-guess herself, former Boston-area teacher Casey invites the girl—whom she judges to be 12 or 13—inside to eat and get warm. A wary but starving Eleanor accepts in exchange for Casey promising not to call the police—a deal Casey comes to regret after the phones go down, the power goes out, and her hostile, sullen guest drops something that’s a big surprise. Meanwhile, in interspersed chapters labeled “Before,” middle-schooler Ella befriends fellow outcast Anton, who helps her endure life in Medford, Massachusetts, with her abusive, neglectful hoarder of a mother. As per her usual, McFadden lulls readers using a seemingly straightforward thriller setup before launching headlong into a series of progressively seismic (and increasingly bonkers) plot twists. The visceral first-person, present-tense narrative alternates perspectives, fostering tension and immediacy while establishing character and engendering empathy. Ella and Anton’s relationship particularly shines, its heartrending authenticity counterbalancing some of the story’s soapier turns.
A grim yet gleefully gratifying tale of lost innocence and found family.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781464260919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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