A fast-paced thriller with superb new and returning characters.
An investigative reporter and a forensic pathologist work together in this 1960s-set thriller.
A torso washes ashore on a California beach. Medical examiner Sara Poole connects this homicide with another recent murder. The victims, both male, died during sex and are covered in bites (evoking the title). Just weeks ago, Sara investigated a string of murders in Arizona, where she met reporter Deanne Mulhenney. The women, whose friendship might morph into romance, reunite to track the killer. The murders continue, and the clues get stranger. Sara believes the bites are human but the teeth aren’t real (dentures, perhaps). Meanwhile, a shocking headlining story—Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination—sidetracks Deanne, although she helps Sara as much as she can. The narrative gives readers an early introduction to Alena, who’s committing the murders while working for a crime family that may turn on her, worried that she’s “freelancing.” Regardless, Alena targets Deanne and Sara once Deanne’s articles link the killer’s various homicides. Zell’s energetic sequel to True Creature (2019) bounces among perspectives. Zell ably develops the heroes’ delightfully complicated relationship; there’s definitely love but not necessarily commitment. Alena, however, is this book’s most indelible character. A WWII experiment has twisted her family lineage, and she struggles with a condition that makes her both sympathetic and terrifying. She’s even involved in a too-brief subplot—dissension among the villains—that could fill a novel on its own. Alena’s murders are, of course, violent and, unsurprisingly, sometimes graphic. Her very presence generates suspense, particularly in the final act, when it’s clear she’s after Sara and/or Deanne.
A fast-paced thriller with superb new and returning characters.Pub Date: March 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9847468-9-7
Page Count: 205
Publisher: Tales From Zell, Inc.
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
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.
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