A compelling novel that offers a grim but fascinating dive into one person’s psyche.
A man’s investigation into a disconcerting photo takes him on a bizarre journey around Pennsylvania in Steele’s psychological thriller.
The story begins with the narrator spotting a scrolling image on a digital picture frame that captures his attention. The photo depicts a field in which a pair of bare legs are partially hidden by wild grass; the narrator is disturbed by the image and has a gut feeling that the legs may belong to a dead child. His longtime partner, known as Doe, claims that she knows nothing about the picture, despite the fact that the scrolling images are primarily hers. The narrator becomes determined to locate that field and embarks on an amateur investigation—only to wind up stranded when his brand-new SUV breaks down during the search. Luckily, he catches a ride with accommodating hippies, who drop him off at a former fire station that’s now a residence. He eventually finds a garage, where he meets a young man named Nza, who becomes his traveling companion. Together, they search for someone to get the narrator’s SUV running again, which begets a handful of unusual tasks, including retrieving an item from a sorority. Along the way, the narrator picks up disturbing information about Doe, and about himself. Steele’s narrator seems unreliable, since he continually implies that this suspenseful story is a product of his subconscious or possibly a lucid dream. The tale is also laden with footnotes, which sometimes offer elaboration but more often provide startling insight into the narrator (“Call me Roe”) and his relationship with Doe; he’s more timid than his towering frame suggests, for instance, and he’s suffered traumatic events in his past. The use of footnotes wears thin, though—especially when the narrator uses them to cite copious references (literary, cinematic, and musical) or acknowledge his rambling nature. (“Why do I mention all of this here? I don’t know.”) Still, the novel contains an engaging mystery and an ending that will surely stick in readers’ minds.
A compelling novel that offers a grim but fascinating dive into one person’s psyche.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9798254439035
Page Count: 203
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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