A thickly detailed political thriller that skimps on character development.
In the last gasp of a post-colonial nation, its sultan reflects on the tragedies and horrors of his rule.
On a rainy night in 1947, the Irani Palace of the province of Sipheristan hosts a grand celebration, complete with drinks, dancing, and many beautiful contenders for the heart of its crown prince. His father, the Sultan Aslan, sits aside from the celebration, reflecting on the years of his rule and his service to both the province and the British. The colonial support that has allowed Sipheristan to expand and protect itself is withdrawing, bordering nations seek to absorb it, and America and the Soviet Union eye its natural resources. Furthermore, the Paradise Valley, as travelers have long called the area, hosts a diverse population of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Hindus, their differences leading to increased sectarian violence. Mounting debt, challenges from charismatic yet cruel figures like Genghis Rasul, renewed Islamic conservatism, and family drama, such as that caused by the Sultan’s late, mentally unstable queen, have eroded trust and power. The rebels are at the door, quite literally, and Aslan looks back on his losses: his love affair with Swiss pilot Eva Piazinni, his 13-year-old daughter’s suicide and his son’s death fighting the Japanese, the murder and torture he inflicted on family, the political and socio-economic maneuvering with corrupt British leaders—all for his home. Chowdhury’s novel, well researched and well reasoned, crafts a fictitious country with all the political intrigue of any post-colonial nation after World War II. The impacts of droughts, insurgencies, love affairs, and scintillating land reforms are exactingly described. Sipheristan itself exudes culture, enveloping the reader in elaborate dances, architecture, and folklore, like the cursed Noor diamond. Yet for all this detail, even at its most engrossing the book tends to be fairly dry, written more like a history book than the epic novel its large cast and sweeping narrative promise. The intricacies of any economic or political decision are painstakingly broken down, but cast conflicts, such as the death of the crown prince’s mother and its effect on him or Aslan’s duality as a sympathetic leader, despite his willingness to torture children, go largely unexplored.
A thickly detailed political thriller that skimps on character development.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5069-0980-6
Page Count: 234
Publisher: First Edition Design Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2025 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.
