An often enjoyable suspense novel, despite some awkward passages.
A woman on the run from her husband seeks refuge in a small Texas town with a former Marine in Lukas’ romantic thriller.
Thirty-four-year-old Sidney McQueen is leaving the city of Fort Worth, along with her horse, Mocha, whom she transports in a trailer attached to the back of her truck. She’s on the run from her husband, Winston, and journeys to Alpine, Texas, where her friend, Trevor Nolan, told her she would find a safe place to hide. That place is with Trevor’s friend, Markus Yeager, a former Marine who knows nothing about her current circumstances. When Markus runs a background check on Sidney, he learns that Winston is “involved in south of the border pharmaceuticals,” and that Sidney has other aliases. In flashbacks to Sidney’s time in Fort Worth, readers discover that Winston was abusive and pressured Sidney into marriage; before leaving him, she saw evidence of Winston’s ties to a Mexican drug cartel and uncovers a file that he was keeping on her, focused entirely on her and her history. Later, after hearing that her divorce attorney was murdered, Sidney and Markus take protective measures, but it doesn’t take long before one of Winston’s colleagues finds Sidney’s location. As Sidney faces with a struggle to survive, she and Markus connect on a deeper level. Over the course of this novel, Lukas does an excellent job of blending genres in a story that’s part romance, part domestic thriller, and part actioner. The various elements intertwine seamlessly, and the author does a particularly engaging job of slowly revealing Markus’ past trauma. However, some of the prose and dialogue can feel a bit hackneyed (“I’m fighting a different enemy—one in my own backyard”; “I want to be with you, as long as you promise to love me for the remainder of all our Decembers”). Still, the main characters communicate refreshingly well with each other, for the most part. The plot is somewhat formulaic, but it’s nicely paced and rounded out with a cast of fine secondary characters.
An often enjoyable suspense novel, despite some awkward passages.Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2015
ISBN: 9780996235648
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Chevalier Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.
After the events of Book of Night (2022), Charlie Hall is forced to hunt down the perpetrator of a terrible massacre.
Charlie Hall is the Hierophant: It’s her job to be tethered to a powerful, independent shadow—a “Blight”— and hunt down other Blights for the Cabals, the heads of their respective shadow-magic specialties. The Cabals use the difficult job of Hierophant as a punishment, but Charlie agreed to take it on so she could be the person tethered to Vince, aka Red, the Blight who posed as a human and ended up dating and falling in love with Charlie. The Cabal leaders used magic to steal the part of Red’s memory that contained his relationship with Charlie, and so Charlie is determined to steal Red’s memories back. And she needs to move fast, because if Red doesn’t remember loving her, he just might be OK with Charlie being killed if it means his own freedom. Meanwhile, Mr. Punch, a terrifying Cabal leader who specializes in using shadow magic to possess other people’s bodies, has a job for Charlie: He wants her to find the culprit behind a terrible massacre that was attributed to a cult. He suspects that the people were actually killed by a Blight, and he doesn’t want the Cabals to face the blowback if the truth becomes public. Mr. Punch could do terrible things to Charlie if she fails, but if she succeeds, he’ll help Charlie and Red be free of the Cabals for good. The sophomore novel in a series is always tough, but this sequel proves that the second book can be even better than the first. Black turns the screws on the magical world she set up in Book 1, creating complicated political motives between Charlie and the Cabal leaders and making the question of what it means for a shadow, like Red, to have their own consciousness more interesting. Veteran con artist Charlie makes some truly brilliant moves, especially toward the end, where the last few chapters have one terrific surprise after the other.
A smart and highly original work of modern fantasy.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781250812223
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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