An enjoyable tale with plenty of suspense and the bonus of intriguing medical details.
In this thriller, a devious serial killer remains on the loose in an Arizona hospital—will the culprit be discovered and stopped before the next victim dies?
Dr. Maya Summer is the hero of Miller’s tale. She is the harried public health director for a Phoenix hospital who also mentors medical residents who will soon be out on their own. Then there’s her self-effacing colleague Alex Reddish and her love interest, the rich and handsome cardiac surgeon Whitaker Thicket. Resident Jim Barrow is OK some days and spacey on others. What is his problem? Another resident is the flirty and presumptuous Veronica Sampson. At first, no one suspects there’s a killer. But after some party punch is spiked and Alex’s bike is tampered with, it soon becomes apparent that someone is up to no good. Between chapters, there are short passages from the killer’s journal—typical aggrieved and egotistical stuff. The Maya-Whit romance finally sours—he was by turns bullying and needy—so will something good happen with Maya and Alex? Unfortunately, Alex’s life may be in serious danger. Miller is not only an experienced novelist, but also a retired doctor, so readers learn a lot about local diseases (valley fever, West Nile, etc.) and drugs both natural and human-made. In that sense, the book is not just entertaining, but educational as well. A subplot, well handled, concerns Maya’s harassment by bikers (she is trying to get the Arizona helmet law reinstated) and a tragic accident in her past. There are also the requisite minor characters, like the grumpy but wise retired physician who counsels Maya and the sweet neighbor kid who loves horses. Phoenix, with its punishing summer weather beautifully described (“The sky stood dazed, a feeble ruined blue”), is almost a character itself, which perhaps explains the gripping novel’s ominous title. A few readers may guess the killer’s identity before the finale. The murderer, like Iago, displays a “motiveless malignity,” which always complicates matters.
An enjoyable tale with plenty of suspense and the bonus of intriguing medical details.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64779-016-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Univ. of Nevada
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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