The "duhs" outnumber the thrills in the 81-year-old Cook's latest.
After his wife, Emma, contracts deadly eastern equine encephalitis and he gets taken for an obscene ride by a predatory health insurance company, ex-cop Brian Murphy fights back.
When he and Emma retired from the NYPD's elite Emergency Service Unit to start a high-end personal protection security firm, they signed up for a short-term health insurance policy they didn't bother to read. After Emma falls ill following a mosquito bite and their 4-year-old daughter, Juliette, sinks into mysterious symptoms of her own, Murphy is left in an increasingly desperate state as uncovered bills soar near $200,000 and hospital officials and doctors give him the cold shoulder. He finds an ally and superior babysitter in Jeanne, a French-born woman with a background in child psychology he meets in the waiting room of a medical billing advocate. She was victimized by the same health insurance company after her husband suffered a heart attack, received inadequate treatment, and died. Oh, to have been in France, where their health care system is "so, so much better." Those expecting another outbreak thriller from the prolific author of Pandemic (2018) and Contagion (1995) will be disappointed to encounter what is largely a diatribe against the American health care system. It certainly deserves to be taken on, but Cook's priggish lectures about this hotbed of "personal greed trumping altruism" stop the novel in its tracks. The same confrontations are staged over and over, with the protagonist seemingly unable to read the writing on the wall or recognize obvious things until long after the reader has. And what the reader will see as unhinged behavior on Murphy's part, Cook somehow sees as reasonable. The book can be oddly compelling but goes off the rails in any number of ways.
The "duhs" outnumber the thrills in the 81-year-old Cook's latest.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-32829-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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