A sharp, gripping story of a bleak future.
In Berger’s dystopian tale, an accountant searches for a man who’s somehow disappeared in a strictly monitored society.
In this futuristic world, the System aids citizens with nearly every aspect of life, from finding compatible dating prospects to getting to work each morning. Jack, just a typical accountant at a bookkeeping company in New Boston, has a business meeting with Megumi, general counsel at UVblZCofKX Corp., a company headquartered in Asia; its North American subsidiary is one of Jack’s clients. Unexpectedly, Megumi asks him to help locate missing financial officer Stanton Lime. Sure enough, Jack’s ping for Lime gets no response whatsoever, which is practically inconceivable. Consequently, he initiates an investigation of sorts to find the missing man. Though there’s little information in Lime’s workstream to indicate his whereabouts, Jack makes headway when he talks to two of the last people who saw him before he vanished. Once he uncovers “subversive” materials among Lime’s belongings, Jack, in little time, begins to question the System itself. He learns, for one, that the System’s most recent update includes a recorded historical fact that’s been slightly altered. Jack teams up with Megumi and others and tries to unearth whatever else the System may be hiding. Berger’s absorbing story skewers reliance on social media. What makes the System so unsettling is that it merely sends “prompts”; citizens can ignore these prompts but often abide by them regardless. Lighter moments help alleviate the overall somber tone. For example, after Jack’s gender-fluid pal, Jesse, suggests Jack is a detective, the accountant subsequently researches Sherlock Holmes for reference. As the narrative progresses, the mystery slowly unravels, though the biggest surprise is saved for the final act. Berger’s prose is crisp, although the narrative can be vague since Jack gets few answers until the end.
A sharp, gripping story of a bleak future.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
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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