Despite some unconvincing elements, this novel will resonate with anyone interested in psychology (or cats).
A once-gregarious psychology student with a traumatic past and a fondness for cats finds herself at the center of a dangerous revenge story.
Holly Serpenta and Lorelei Green were best friends at an elite East Coast college known for its psychology department—until their friendship was torn apart by a charismatic and manipulative professor. Now they've been estranged for 20 years. Holly is rich and powerful and has two grown children, and she's being named Woman of the Year at a gala dinner that will include guests like Sonia Sotomayor, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Zadie Smith; Lorelei, who's the narrator, remains alone and is recently unemployed from a job she didn't much like to begin with, though she does have her cats. She blames Holly for a traumatic incident that caused her to drop out of college just before the final semester, and she's been following Holly's career closely ever since. Lorelei isn't happy about how well her former friend is doing and begins to plot her revenge. But she's not the only one. Someone else from their past has demons, too, and all roads lead back to the bizarre psychology department at Woodward College. Though this book is a page-turner and Lorelei's first-person voice feels authentic, the friendship between Holly and Lorelei is thinly described. We see the whole thing in flashbacks, most of which are scenes that Lorelei just summarizes. Lorelei describes the women as best friends, but that friendship doesn't come across in the book. Though Bell successfully flips the "crazy cat lady" trope on its head and offers a satisfying ending, a number of the characters, including Holly, are flat, and the motivation of the charismatic professor feels far-fetched, like he's a cartoon villain, which might have worked better if his department head wasn't also maniacal.
Despite some unconvincing elements, this novel will resonate with anyone interested in psychology (or cats).Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-9821-7730-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
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