An engaging, if sometimes dauntingly complex, whodunit.
In McCarthy and Dohar’s thriller, an ex-cleric and his friend must solve a poetic puzzle that may be connected to multiple murders.
Myles Dunn, a former Jesuit priest (and “self-professed adrenaline junky…who happens to be a polyglot with an advanced degree in world religions”), is lured back to his alma mater by his “one-time fellow Jesuit and best mate,” Jeremy Strand, with an email that promises the solution to a mystery. Upon his arrival in Oxford, England, from Colorado, he finds a community rattled by the horrific murder of an altar boy, which bigots believe was committed by someone from the local Muslim immigrant community. Strand, an esoteric Jesuit and poetry scholar, has discovered a hidden meaning in one of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ lost “dark” sonnets. Specifically, he believes that Hopkins, a fellow Jesuit and brilliant and idiosyncratic Victorian poet, wrote this poem in an effort to reveal the “quasi-historical legend” of the Cuxham Chalice, a priceless artifact from the time of the Lumen, a secret religious sect founded during the reign of King Henry VIII. When Strand goes missing—and another murder, similar to the first, is committed—Myles and Oxford librarian Eva Bashir must race to solve the poetic riddle and find out who’s behind the crimes. They soon discover that the culprit will go to any length to keep their secret hidden. Fans of Dan Brown’s historical thrillers, particularly the bestselling The Da Vinci Code(2003), are likely to best appreciate McCarthy and Dohar’s dive into the complex and mysterious history of “the self-proclaimed ‘keepers of the Grail.’ ” The plot’s use of the work of Hopkins, a complicated author who often invented his own words, gives readers a clever character to explore. However, the intricate poetic devices at play, which include reverse acrostics, sprung rhythm, sestets, and octets, may be confusing to those who are unfamiliar with serious study of formal poetry. That said, it remains an intriguing thriller to the end.
An engaging, if sometimes dauntingly complex, whodunit.Pub Date: June 24, 2022
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 426
Publisher: De Profundis Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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