A lean and enjoyable crime novel set in the sports world.
An Italian referee is thrown into the center of a corruption scandal in Disco’s debut thriller.
Milo Sant’Elia is a referee for an Italian professional football—that is, soccer—league. It’s not an easy job: He must stay as fit as the players while also performing under the gaze of the sport’s unforgiving fans: “At the highest level, when a player makes a mistake, the fans forgive them after the next touch of the ball,” explains Milo’s brother, Dino, one of the book’s narrators. “But when a referee makes a mistake, it’s inexcusable—the abuse can follow an official for the rest of their career.” However, Milo is understandably horrified when he receives a package at his home in Palermo containing an amputated human thumb—a clear message of intimidation. Milo suspects it has to do with an upcoming high-stakes match, and he refuses to go to the local police until he identifies the culprits with the help of Dino and their attorney friend, Sansone; the ref specifically fears that the Referees’ Association may have been compromised. He attempts to referee games as usual, but he quickly finds his career, and his life, under threat; a mobster, who’s part-owner of a football team, had a referee killed in a game-fixing scheme—and Milo thinks he’s next. The novel is formatted like an oral history, with multiple characters recounting memories. This epistolary style gives the book a somewhat antiquated feel, but it doesn’t hamper the story’s pacing. Disco’s prose captures a convincing conversational tone, as when Dino and Milo drive to the airport: “Milo’s car was a furnace. The engine rumbled steadily behind us….We drove with the windows down, and I don’t know how, but sitting in that heat gave me chills.” Milo is a particularly intriguing character—an aging referee and bookstore employee who lives by a rigorous code of conduct and also likes to rock out to Austrian heavy metal. The various narrative voices are distinctive, and the transitions between them add a sense of momentum to the narrative. The novel is relatively brief, and the pages mostly fly by, keeping readers pleasantly engrossed.
A lean and enjoyable crime novel set in the sports world.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 219
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.
A violent attack hijacks a woman’s memory in this novel of domestic suspense.
McFadden wastes no time pulling the trigger in this harrowing story that starts with gunfire then swiftly propels readers into a crack tale of secrets and misdirection. Originally self-published in 2016, the book carries the same formidable weight as McFadden’s later novels featuring unsuspecting women who lose their power then fight to recapture it—mostly from men who have betrayed them. That formula perfectly fits Dr. Charlotte McKenna, a 37-year-old dermatologist who isn’t looking for love until the most handsome man she’s ever seen begins to woo her. There are warning signs about Clark Douglas and Charlotte overlooks them to her detriment—but is he a killer? The novel has dual timelines split between events leading up to the day Charlotte barely survives a head wound meant to kill her and the months afterward, when she struggles to reclaim her memory and her mobility. In real life, McFadden is a physician trained to treat brain injuries. Her expertise gives Charlotte’s rehabilitation authenticity, and her writing talent makes it interesting and engaging. As good as that timeline is, readers will yearn to get back to the alternate timeline about who wants Charlotte dead. It’s only a matter of time before Charlotte starts to remember who tried to kill her, and the clock is ticking toward their next attempt. McFadden dishes up plenty of suspects: Charlotte’s secretive husband, Clark; a former patient turned stalker who confronts Charlotte on her honeymoon; and the angry husband of a patient who blames Charlotte for his wife leaving him. Though the story is delicious and dark, McFadden brightens things up with a possible love interest for Charlotte and a surprise ending sure to please the author’s many fans.
Starts with a bang and closes with a knockout punch of an ending.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249617
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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