No more shapeless than usual but definitely weirder.
Has Stone Barrington finally bedded a woman too lethal?
Readers eager to find out will have to make it past the opening movement, in which the New York attorney most welcomed at high-end establishments is unaccountably eclipsed by Mickey O’Brien, a retired NYPD detective whose gambling problem has gotten him into serious trouble with both his creditors and his mother, restaurant heiress Louise O’Brien O’Brien, who swears this is the very last time she’ll bail him out. She showers him with money she was going to leave him in her will, and Mickey, breaking every rule in the suspense writer’s playbook, pays everybody off. Fans who’ve noticed Woods’ recent habit of pairing with other writers might suspect that these opening chapters had been ghostwritten if Mickey didn’t instantly indulge in Stone’s favorite habits: binge-buying upscale lifestyle commodities and seducing the women making them (and themselves) available. Tired, happy, and sexually sated, Mickey abruptly recedes, clearing the way for Stone to step back into the escalating tussle over who has the strongest claim to the $1 million the late criminal mastermind Eduardo Buono gave Jack Coulter, back when he was Johnny Fratelli, to watch Buono’s back in Sing Sing. At length Stone’s path crosses that of nightclub singer Hilda Ross, who moonlights as a contract killer. Other limbs cross, and consigliere Sal Trafficante, who works with Don Antonio Datilla and plays with Hilda, takes baleful note. Will Sal kill Stone? Will Stone kill Sal? Will Hilda kill one or both of them? The only way to resolve these burning questions, it seems, is to bring in Mickey O’Brien one last time.
No more shapeless than usual but definitely weirder.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33166-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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