An absorbing, tech-smart tale that unfolds in a tense prison setting.
An imprisoned hacker helps a rookie inmate while another new arrival proves a menace in this debut techno-thriller.
It’s 2010, and Tanto has been an unwilling resident of Hackers’ Haven for eight years. The government has dumped this hackers-exclusive prison somewhere in Texas. The inmates, who all go by their online handles, spend each day scouring for illegal acts on the internet; anyone scoring 500 “kills,” or captures, is up for parole. Double-H boasts countless rules that Tanto relays to Quidlee, the “rook” he mentors, who learns that even this prison has perks, like a healthy diet and medical attention. But another new inmate, Barca, complicates Tanto’s life. Barca is a legend among hackers (“The word hacking implies risk. Barca wants all the benefits of the hack, and none of the risk. He does virtually none of the work, but he has money to hire the best. With money comes power”). Inside Double-H, muscle-bound Barca threatens to upend Tanto’s relationship with Quidlee and knows way too much about the facility and its inner workings. But if Barca breaks rules, he’ll wind up in Guantánamo Bay, which Tanto can make sure happens. The only other option for getting rid of this bully is the most dangerous one—an escape plan. Pepper deftly amps up his engaging prison tale with perpetual threats. The sinister Warden Cyfib, for example, electrically shocks “hackvicts” via their implanted disciplinary chips. At the same time, Tanto delays completing his Cyfib-demanded software “monster”—its intent is to entice online users into illicit endeavors and then trap them. The author’s crisp writing smoothly clarifies technical jargon with no sign of condescension; this creates a protagonist/narrator who comes across as an endearing, sympathetic journeyman more than a highly skilled hacker. Nevertheless, Tanto’s adherence to the Japanese Bushido code isn’t entirely convincing, as he’s White and the origin of his “training” is unclear. But a sequel, which Pepper seems to be aiming for, may shed light on the hero’s largely mysterious background.
An absorbing, tech-smart tale that unfolds in a tense prison setting.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-958011-02-7
Page Count: 369
Publisher: Hustle Valley Press
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A haunting, timeless exploration of the evil men do—and the imprint it leaves behind.
A middle-aged woman channels her best Miss Marple when she finds herself facing a nightmare from her past as she seeks to make sense of her present.
Jane Trevally is at a crossroads of sorts. After a traumatic childhood, she sought safety and solace in marriages with wealthy men. Now twice divorced and living with her four dogs in the crumbling English country mansion that is her birthright, she’s feeling the need to do something, to take a job, when one day a runaway dog turns up on her doorstep. The dog is chipped, and with the help of a local vet and her loyal stepson, Dexter Lombardi, Jane traces the dog’s home to the edge of Hampstead Heath, in London—a place that brings back the memory of a terrifying night from her youth, when a handsome man picked her up and took her back to this very house. Everything there felt wrong; she just managed to escape, certain that if she had stayed, she would have died that night. Now, soon after knocking on the door and returning the dog, she discovers that he had run away from an Airbnb near her house, where he had been staying with a young woman who seems to have disappeared. With the help of Dexter; his father, Tony, her second ex-husband; Tony’s former security enforcer, Tobias Wilson; and her own gift for connecting with people, Jane sets out to find the woman, taking her first steps on the path to becoming a private investigator. While Jane serves as the heart of the novel, Jewell also narrates chapters from several other characters’ points of view, all of which chip away at the horror that is the house on the Heath. By slowly revealing past and present simultaneously, Jewell keeps the mystery fresh as she plays with Gothic tropes and the timeless imagery of “a house of horrors” embodying human sin. She doesn’t flinch from exploring the depths of depravity in this house—and its humans.
A haunting, timeless exploration of the evil men do—and the imprint it leaves behind.Pub Date: June 23, 2026
ISBN: 9781668033906
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
