A thriller without many thrills.
A contract for surrogacy goes predictably bad in this debut novel told from multiple points of view.
Cally is 20, impressionable, and optimistic in 2001 when she signs the papers to become a surrogate for Hal Olson and Ruth Martin. Cally needs the cash, and Type A Ruth has always dreamed of being a mother. It’s Hal’s second marriage, and he’s only marginally interested in having another child, but Ruth envisions a baby as the glue that will bind her family together. “I believed it would be the ultimate bond,” she says. Days after giving birth, though, Cally splits from the hospital, sneaking the infant out. Cally’s old boyfriend Digger picks them up in his truck and they head north. “When I saw her,” Cally says, “and the way she looked at me, I just…couldn’t [give her away].” She starts daydreaming about a new life with Digger and the infant: “Why couldn’t we be one of those families? Weren’t we just like anybody else?” Hal and Ruth are terrified and understandably angry that she disappeared. Author Halleen’s background as an attorney shines as flashback chapters delve into the minutiae of contract law, but the plot is easy to predict. The story is told from all four characters' points of view, though some of the weaker ones feel like the results of an exercise in Googling cultural touchpoints. “That’s why I play Final Fantasy VII on Playstation,” one of Hal's sons says in a flashback, letting us know he’s squarely in 1997. Cally’s journey away from the hospital, Hal, and Ruth isn’t directed by much of a plan; the search to find her is short. Digger wants nothing to do with Cally’s fantasy of being a family of three; instead, he saw surrogacy as “creepy as hell.” Cally’s journey comes to a mostly inevitable conclusion, forecasted by the chapter where the characters negotiate the contract.
A thriller without many thrills.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-307-007-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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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