Great villains and family drama elevate this espionage thriller above standard spy-game fare.
A child custody case spirals into a national crisis in Manning’s spy thriller.
In this installment of the author’s Kolya Petrov series, the story opens with Kolya’s fiancée, Alex Feinstein, receiving a panicked call: Alex’s best friend from high school, Yael, has just had her baby taken away by the police and CPS, and even though the two haven’t spoken in years, Yael is convinced that Alex is the only lawyer who can help. Alex is reluctant to get involved—especially considering how evasive Yael is being about where her husband, Brody, is and what he does for work—but Yael convinces her to come to New York. Meanwhile, an intrigued Kolya uses his espionage skills, honed by his work with the Executive Covert Agency, to look into Brody. He quickly discovers that Brody’s boss is Victor Forest, a man who seems to leave no digital footprint. “This was beyond bland,” Kolya thinks to himself. “This was spook territory.” When Kolya’s colleagues reveal that Forest is actually a former CIA agent and the current head of a dangerous domestic terrorism ring known as the American Gold Posse, he rushes to meet Alex in New York. As Kolya and his team’s investigation uncovers a chilling plot, Alex tries to find a way to help her old friend and support her fiancé—but no one is safe. Kolya’s storyline follows the conventional lines of an espionage thriller, but Manning manages to imbue even his simple social media searches with great tension. The villains are characterized by a chilling (and timely) blend of patriotism, aggression, and conspiracy theory-fueled lunacy. The heart of the story is the emotionally charged court custody battle—one made even more intriguing by the involvement of a haughty and hot-tempered social worker, Barbara, who doesn’t “really like babies all that much.” Everything leads to the ticking bombs and shootouts that are staples of the genre, but the skillful combination of wildly different elements makes for a fun and fresh read.
Great villains and family drama elevate this espionage thriller above standard spy-game fare.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781970286007
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Misbehavin' Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Gritty little gems.
A collection of six short stories about crimes both planned and accidental, the collision of dreams and reality, and the things people do for love.
John Highland, for example, faces a lifetime in prison. But if he can do one “Final Score” before turning himself in, at least he can set up his beloved wife for the rest of her days. His plan is impossible to pull off, which is even more reason to do it—a brilliant finale to his criminal career. Another tale takes the reader to Rhode Island, where liquor sales are banned on Sundays. One liquor store maintains a secret “Sunday List” of thirsty patrons and their liquid requirements to get them through the Lord’s Day. Some stories are more serious—a drunk kid kills a young woman in a DUI and is headed to prison. But the kid’s cousin, a cop, worries he may not survive long in the general population. If only the kid could get assigned to the “North Wing,” where a mob boss prisoner protects its inmates. “True Story” is sharp, funny, and one hundred percent dialogue. Guys swap wacky crime stories in a diner. A sample: “Listen—Angela, for all her fine qualities, was no Rose Scholar, either.” But then in “The Lunch Break,” Dave is hired to watch over the spoiled actress Brittany McVeigh and make sure she shows up on set sober and on time. She is only 5-foot-3, but “bad things come in small packages” and she’s a “drunken, drug-addled, promiscuous little diva” who claims she’s being stalked. In the final tale, “Collision,” life is darn near perfect for an upwardly mobile white family of three. Brad McAlister is a highly talented hotel manager. Upper management invites him and his wife to a fancy restaurant and offers him his dream promotion. But in a squeal of tires in the parking lot, their lives change forever. Will the McAlisters’ deep love for each other survive? Each of these stories has clever plotting and sharp dialogue, a hallmark of all the author’s work. Winslow had previously announced his retirement, but maybe that collided with his love of writing.
Gritty little gems.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9780063450424
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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