A well-paced noirish read that focuses on the fragile human currents that run beneath acts of murderous violence.
An urban community is traumatized by murder in this psychological thriller from Fisher.
The novel opens with the chilling inner thoughts of a person who has nursed a private fury for years and finally acts on it, murdering a woman named Nancy Scott in Philadelphia’s Valley Green Park. From this disturbing confession, the book shifts into a rotating structure told through sharply differentiated first-person voices. Kevin Mather, still dealing with the traumatic fallout from his entanglement with serial killer Olivia in the previous book in this series, is pulled into the investigation through his friendship with Leonard Welsh, now head of Homicide. Scott’s death, observed by chance through a pair of bird-watching binoculars, draws in Anna Cohen, an elderly witness whose quiet, perceptive presence becomes one of the book’s most human anchors. Nancy’s twin sister, Linda, arrives in a haze of shock and grief, her emotional unraveling rendered with direct, unadorned detail that keeps the tension grounded in grief and loss rather than spectacle. The killer’s chapters run parallel to these threads, offering a frightening view of someone who commits violent crimes for reasons of personal catharsis. The momentum comes from Fisher's dive into shifting interior monologues. Fisher uses the multi-POV format to build psychological density rather than simply relay plot mechanics, allowing readers to sit inside competing moral and emotional worlds. Kevin’s introspective, often self-critical narration contrasts sharply with Leonard’s blunt pragmatism, while Anna’s voice is tender and quietly courageous. Pacing is brisk in the early chapters, driven by tight scene transitions and a constant rotation of perspectives; later sections widen the lens as new victims emerge and suspicions build. The book’s sense of place, especially the wooded trails and urban edges of Philadelphia, is rendered in careful strokes that support the procedural thread without slowing the narrative. Throughout, Fisher favors a plainspoken style that keeps tension high and avoids melodrama. The novel culminates in the ultimate unmasking of a killer— a tense buildup that relies not on random twists but on steadily accumulating character insight.
A well-paced noirish read that focuses on the fragile human currents that run beneath acts of murderous violence.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9798901740255
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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