An interesting idea for a story taking place during Covid lockdowns, but it falls flat.
An identical twin's obsession turns deadly.
When Megan discovers scandalous photos of Leah, her estranged twin sister, on her husband's phone, she immediately goes searching for answers, using Leah's popular Instagram feed to find her in their beloved former childhood cabin. They've hardly finished their first conversation in years before Megan impulsively murders Leah in cold blood. Leaving her body in a freezer, Megan immediately decides to take on her sister's identity despite Leah's fame and outgoing personality, which Megan does not share. Leah's friends seem wary of her newly tamed nature but do not suspect much of anything, and before Megan is forced to impersonate her sister in a more public fashion, Covid leaves England in lockdown, and Megan is stuck at home with her psychopathic, cheating husband. The point of view begins to alternate between Megan and her husband, Chris, who admits right away that he only ever married Megan to get a hold of Leah's fortune, and once he reveals he knows what Megan did, he begins to keep her prisoner until she's able to retrieve all of her sister's money. Chris is controlling and jealous of Megan (despite not loving her at all) as well as a violent and self-described con man, and he spent much of his adult life before marrying Megan as an escort who stole from his rich female clients. He is not only immediately unlikable, he is not very well developed, coming off more like a clichéd villain than a real person. The same can be said for Leah, whose only goal in life seems to have been taking things away from Megan—even things she didn't really want, like Chris. The fact that Megan murdered Leah over a man she was terrified of and didn't want to be with anymore doesn't totally make sense, nor does the immediacy with which she gets over the murder itself. She spends most of the book preoccupied with a romantic interest named Tom and doesn't give much thought to killing her own twin. Leah's grotesque motivations are never very clear, and Megan gets away with things far too easily to be believable.
An interesting idea for a story taking place during Covid lockdowns, but it falls flat.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5387-1001-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
