A diligent and appealing detective enhances this tense mystery.
A private eye’s investigation into the assault of a 70-year-old woman leads to murder and a political conspiracy in this thriller sequel.
Boston entrepreneur Ben Johnson is shaken by the news that Acadia LaFleur is comatose following an attack. He’s had business dealings with the LaFleurs, an affluent Louisiana family that Acadia married into. As Ben has loved her since the two had an affair decades ago, he asks his private investigator friend Dimase Augustin to find out what happened. Dimase makes little headway until he learns of a striking similarity between Acadia and an escort who recently turned up as a homicide victim in a nearby Louisiana town. They both have the same name. Not only are the crimes likely connected, but there’s another potential link to a political power move that involves an imminent assassination. Since the culprits are desperate to cover their tracks, they target others for murder as well, including Acadia, who may eventually be able to identify her assailant. A vague clue points Dimase and Ben to an unknown senator’s nickname. They’ll need to identify this senator to unravel a growing conspiracy while ensuring Acadia—and the two friends themselves—stays safe. Bruneau’s novel is concise and absorbing. The mystery is relatively simple, and most readers will have worked it out well before the ending. But suspense is ample in the latter half, particularly as escalating distrust among the villains makes them more unpredictable and dangerous. The story offers minimal insights into Dimase aside from his brief personal history beginning in Haiti. He’s generally by the book, even respectfully coordinating with authorities in the two places in which he operates. Still, his professional nature underscores his intelligence and tenacity while Ben and Acadia’s convincing love story provides the bulk of the tale’s strong emotional context.
A diligent and appealing detective enhances this tense mystery. (dedication)Pub Date: May 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-66320-200-0
Page Count: 244
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.
Dead bodies turn up in the first sentence of the prologue in McFadden’s latest domestic thriller.
The mystery of who died is at the pulsating heart of this propulsive tale. As Chapter 1 begins, Naomi arrives home to find the locks changed on the front door of the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Jeremy, and their 5-year-old son, Teddy. Jeremy steps out the front door and convinces Naomi to move out while he has their home renovated, a plan Naomi knows nothing about. It’s all a ruse, though, as the next day Jeremy tells her he wants a divorce. Naomi is shellshocked and soon discovers that Jeremy is having an affair with Veronica, a beautiful younger woman. What seems at first like a stereotypical story about a man who leaves his wife turns into something else when Naomi decides she’ll do anything to get Veronica away from Jeremy and Teddy, and Veronica decides to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Fans of stalker novels will cringe with delight as creepy things start to happen. Teddy’s stuffed elephant, a gift from Veronica, is found impaled on a kitchen knife; Naomi suspects Jeremy is gaslighting her and that Veronica tried to poison her. A weird confrontation among Jeremy, Veronica, and Naomi at Teddy’s birthday party, to which Naomi shows up uninvited, is priceless. There are three main characters, and any or all of them may be unreliable narrators. Packing the plot with dark, gasp-inducing twists, McFadden outdoes herself in a story about how highly emotional people engage in risky behavior to get what they want—but in this novel, for better or worse, not everyone will survive.
Trust no one in this over-the-top tale of deception and revenge.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249631
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK TO SCREEN
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.
Character assassination reigns supreme, if not uncontested, in a Long Island suburb.
April Masterson loves her husband, corporate attorney Elliott; their 7-year-old, Bobby; and her YouTube channel, “April’s Sweet Secrets.” What she doesn’t love is whoever’s texting her warnings about how Bobby isn’t really in their backyard while she’s busy filming her videos or withering critiques of her baking show or veiled accusations about her past and threats about her present. Her best friend, former prosecutor Julie Bressler, may be bossy and opinionated, but surely she’d never turn on April this way. Who else might know enough to send April goodies like a picture of her kissing Mark Tanner, Bobby’s soccer coach? Though April struggles to get Elliot to take her ordeal seriously, even when she shows up at his office for a lunch date, he’s protected by his receptionist, Brianna Anderson, whose attachment to her boss goes far beyond loyalty. Then Julie turns on her; Maria Cooper, her friendly new next-door neighbor, turns on her; and in the most mind-boggling scene, Doris Kirkland, April’s mother, whose dementia has brought her to a nursing home, turns on her. McFadden releases an escalating series of toxins so deftly into the suburban atmosphere that it’s practically an anticlimax when someone gets killed and April instantly becomes the prime suspect. But that’s only a setup for the tale’s boldest move: switching its narrator from April to a fair-weather friend who frames the whole nightmare in dramatically different terms. As a special gift to her savviest fans, the author throws in an even more jolting epilogue that’s as hard to forget as it is to believe.
Recommended reading for every paranoid suburbanite who’s considering a move to the city, or to the Arctic wilds.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249600
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 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.
