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THE CALL

Solid characters and an intriguing story make for a satisfying read.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

A reporter and a scientist come up against a strange virus in this international medical thriller.

Nate Fisher is a journalist investigating a suspected terrorist cell. Juliette Fernandez is a virologist researching a mysterious virus and running from something in her past. They and their respective worlds meet in the Comoros Islands in this often gripping debut novel by Schieffelin. Nate is anticipating a routine research trip and mission, but he is instead thrust into a nightmarish ordeal when he awakens to find his colleagues dead—at least, he thinks they’re dead. They soon wake up, though, and Nate encounters Juliette and French scientist Darrien Gauche, who are tracking a mysterious virus that induces a state resembling death, blurring the boundary between existence and oblivion. Juliette is also dealing with her past (which includes an abusive relationship) and the fear of long-buried secrets being exposed (“Goran’s eyes on me usually spelled trouble”). As Nate and Juliette’s professional and personal bonds deepen, Juliette is forced to confront her history—particularly the violent chapter that led her into hiding. When government agents close in, she must choose between continuing to flee or standing her ground. Meanwhile, Nate, untangling more than he bargained for, is unsure of whom to trust. It all amounts to a high-stakes medical mystery riddled with global conspiracies and deceptions. A blend of romance, thriller, and medical suspense, this novel explores themes of survival, redemption, and the fragile divide between life and death. Schieffelin has created two flawed but captivating characters in Nate and Juliette, and their relationship provides the beating heart of her narrative. The story jumps back and forth from Nate’s point of view to Juliette’s; this structure largely works, even if it does get a bit convoluted at times. Another strength of Schieffelin’s yarn is its international scope, bolstered by some regional recipes and an international music playlist at the back of the book. All in all, this is a promising effort from a first-time novelist who takes her readers on a gripping and romantic adventure.

Solid characters and an intriguing story make for a satisfying read.

Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2024

ISBN: 9798891325302

Page Count: 276

Publisher: Atmosphere Press

Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025

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THE CRASH

Soapy, suspenseful fun.

A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.

Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.

Soapy, suspenseful fun.

Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025

ISBN: 9781464227325

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Poisoned Pen

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025

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WARD D

A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.

A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.

Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?

A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.

Pub Date: March 4, 2025

ISBN: 9781464227271

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Poisoned Pen

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025

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