A unique action story with a compelling conceit, a tenacious lead, and believable characters.
In Doonan’s novel, the last male FBI agent must prevent war with Mexico in a future when women control the government of the former United States.
FBI agent Robert Hyde has some advantages—his late wife was wealthy, and her family is politically connected—but he has much more stacked against him. After suffering an epidemic called the Pox, the world’s population was decimated, chaos broke out, and women were hunted. After that awful period, the U.S. is now known as the Matriarchal States of America. For safety’s sake, men were left with no rights; they can’t have money, bullets, or even enjoy a soda (bottled water is all they can drink, and it is laced with a drug that prevents erections). Violence against women has plummeted, and now there is almost no femicide. Robert, who is the FBI’s last remaining male agent, has a daughter, but his senator mother-in-law wants full custody, which she can easily obtain if the father commits a crime. In the midst of this dystopian mess, Mexico is threatening war: Aztecs are amassing at the border, and Robert is sent (with a female minder) to negotiate for peace. It’s a tall order, he’s off the bottled water, and a beautiful princess named Xochil is waiting for him upon his arrival (“‘You’ll never want to leave,’ she whispers”). Doonan’s premise of a female-controlled authoritarian state is audacious, and both the novel’s backstory and present reality are full of gritty details that give the narrative a unique plausibility. The Matriarchal States isn’t a pleasant place, but Robert and other characters make wry, sarcastic observations that lighten the mood and add a necessary human aspect to the stark landscape. (It is also intriguing to see what Mexico is like in relation to the former U.S.) The characters are clearly drawn and have convincing motivations. The plot grows slightly convoluted when Robert reaches Mexico but returns to form nicely later on.
A unique action story with a compelling conceit, a tenacious lead, and believable characters.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2025
ISBN: 9798284534052
Page Count: 352
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Enough clues, red herrings, and false endings to make readers feel that the Orient Express has put out to sea.
A luxury liner bound for New York in 1924 becomes the scene of a twisty golden age pastiche.
When an unnamed third-class passenger discovers the body of an elderly man at the bottom of an exterior flight of stairs aboard the Endeavour, Capt. McCrory insists it must be an accident. But James Temple, a Scotland Yard detective who just happens to be aboard, says that no one would have ventured to the outdoor steps in the rain without a coat, so the death should be treated as suspicious. Unable to stop Temple from investigating, McCrory assigns ship’s officer Timothy Birch to accompany him, and Birch promptly becomes the world’s most unwilling Dr. Watson, constantly battling Temple over theories and procedures. Anxious that they have only four days to find a potential killer before the ship docks and lets its 2,000 passengers roam free in New York, he’s especially infuriated at the leisurely pace marked by Temple’s bromide, “Facts before witnesses.” There’s reason to sympathize with Temple, because the suspects in first and second class (the only classes that matter in this ultra-class-conscious world) are cardboard cutouts—the successful banker, his trophy wife, the aspiring artists, the gallery owner—who are much less interesting than the secrets they’re hiding. In his most anachronistic development, author Hindle shows Birch, unlike the imperturbable sidekicks he echoes, sunk in grief over his vanished daughter, Amelia, and his estranged wife, Kate, who left him after Amelia disappeared during one of his ocean voyages. He’d do anything to get his daughter back, he tells Temple, and his determination leads to the biggest surprise of all.
Enough clues, red herrings, and false endings to make readers feel that the Orient Express has put out to sea.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9798217185740
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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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