A satisfying read with a complicated, engaging plotline.
The stock market crash of 1929 upends the life of Chicago’s biggest trader in wheat futures.
At 32, Frank Cork, a poor Irish/Polish kid from Chicago’s South Side, has made it to the top of the wheat futures heap, reaping a lavish home, beautiful wife, two lovable children, and a brand new, eye-catching “Hudson Super Six Cabriolet in jade and moss green.” But wheat prices have been falling for the past two days, and Frank senses trouble is brewing. On Monday, October 28, 1929, he’s driving to the Chicago Board of Trade building after a breakfast meeting during which he secures a significantly large trade investment. Suddenly, he finds himself caught in the middle of a mob hit. He escapes from the scene, but not before his flashy Hudson is noticed and Frank and the shooter make brief eye contact. And his day is about to get even worse. He learns from his best friend, Robert “Bobby” MacNamara, president of the Board of Trade, that he and his company are being accused of market manipulation by Canada’s Yuri Dyachenko, head of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The next morning, the stock market crashes, and Frank’s fortune crashes with it. Distraught, he catches the first train out of town, not yet realizing he’s heading to Canada, where he will secretly remain for many months. Kirk’s intriguing tale of a man rediscovering himself in the wheat basket of the Canadian Prairie is part tender personal drama and part a vivid depiction of the bad days during Chicago’s history of political corruption and mob rule, when Al Capone and Bugs Moran fought for control of the illegal liquor business during Prohibition. The novel abounds with historical tidbits about cross-border bootlegging. And although the narrative is not quite a thriller, once Frank temporarily joins up with the Canadian liquor exporters, which involves contact with the mob, the pace and excitement build considerably. Kirk’s prose is crisp, plus she offers an accessible primer on the ins, outs, and perils of day trading and playing the market on agricultural futures.
A satisfying read with a complicated, engaging plotline.Pub Date: June 20, 2025
ISBN: 9781998779703
Page Count: 350
Publisher: At Bay Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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