A fast-paced but somewhat familiar tale about prehistoric predators.
In this novel, a small-town police chief becomes torn between preserving prehistoric creatures that lurk in a park and protecting the locals.
Jason Kenner, a popular high school basketball coach in Wilton, Connecticut, mysteriously vanishes, and his childhood friend Vanessa Strauss reports his disappearance to the police. Sean Dermott, the chief of police, is immediately smitten with Vanessa and takes a personal interest in the case as a result. He and his team visit Quarry Head Park, Jason’s last known location. There, Sean is suddenly attacked by what appears to be some sort of massive reptile, an assault that leaves Det. Ethan Roberts, the police chief’s best friend, in critical condition. A grief-stricken Sean fervently hopes that he will survive: “He’s going to be okay. Damn it! He has to be okay.” Sean recruits Dr. Greg Mitchell, an expert on reptiles at the University of Connecticut, to determine the nature of the towering animal, and his speculations prove extraordinary. Greg comes to believe that the colossal creature is a Plesiosaur, a marine reptile that dates back to the Jurassic period. Moreover, there turns out to be more than one. Greg wants to help safely steward the giant reptiles back to their natural environment—they seem to hail from an underground lake. But Col. Frank Gunner, the head of the state police, would rather summarily destroy them. The pace of Keating’s compact book is relentlessly brisk, and the atmospheric story will appeal to fans of the Jurassic Park film series and readers intrigued by huge prehistoric reptiles. In addition, the author provides some rich, informative tidbits about Plesiosaurs and dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the tale offers some familiar elements and tropes, including the preservation debate involving the creatures. Moreover, the prose, while always lucid, is sometimes bland and earnest, traits evident in the interior monologues. At one point, Sean reassures himself when confronted with a romantic opportunity: “Hmm. She’s inviting me back to her place. Keep your cool.”
A fast-paced but somewhat familiar tale about prehistoric predators.Pub Date: April 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-957228-81-5
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Champagne Book Group
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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