A detective story that’s quirky, snarky, fun, and romantic.
A cast of scrappy characters indulges in criminal, political, and romantic antics in Webster’s mystery novel.
From its sardonic opening line (“Clem Dudas learned the hard way that any of God’s glorious days can explode into a shit storm”) to its heartwarming conclusion, the pace of this irreverent novel never slows down. Clem is about to lead his snake-handling fundamentalist Christian group’s revival meeting, but his wife Arlene has disappeared, along with a male parishioner and—worst of all—his two favorite rattlers, Maynard and Dobie. Meanwhile, Bud Randolph is returning from his sister’s wedding to Los Angeles, where he works with his best friend, Stan, and Stan’s fiancé, Mel, in a small private investigation firm. (Bud and Stan’s detecting prowess and conflicting political views were first depicted in Webster’s 2022 novel, American Nonsensical.) Elsewhere, in a small town in Russia, a woman named Sveta hates Putin and yearns for a better life, and somewhere in the United States, an unnamed man is trapped in the trunk of a car with a couple of poisonous snakes. Between his sister’s joy, his partners’ lovey-dovey routine, and the 2020 presidential election, Bud feels angry and lonely. These seemingly unrelated threads begin to come together when Bud responds to a magazine ad headlined “BEAUTIFUL RUSSIAN WOMEN WANT TO MEET YOU,” Clem hires the firm to locate his beloved Maynard and Dobie, and a seemingly simple surveillance job unexpectedly lands Stan in hot water with the feds. Toss in a generous helping of domestic and international political shenanigans and the suspense ratchets up even more. Webster keeps the story lively by bouncing around the distinct points of view of Clem, Bud, Stan, Mel, and Sveta (plus, in a couple of chapters, the man in the trunk). Seeing each of the characters chase their dreams from both their own and each other’s perspective rounds out their warm, humorous, and plucky personalities. The intertwining threads of their wild personal and professional adventures add up to madcap fun.
A detective story that’s quirky, snarky, fun, and romantic.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780997032093
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Casa de Los Suenos Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
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