Timely and tense; a worthy addition to a thriller series.
An undercover federal agent investigates a police officer’s brutal hit-and-run death: Could it have been a planned attack by a member of the force?
In this fifth installment of Barrows’ thriller series, agent David Ward of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is on a Colorado ski trip with his significant other, Rowan Parks. But then his boss asks him to slip into a Florida police force that might have one or more extremely bad apples. One of them could have been driving the pick-up truck that mowed down Deputy Jackson Garrett as he stood issuing a speeding ticket on a rural Panhandle road. Tallahassee Sheriff Eli Coe “thinks his office has been infiltrated by the Oath Keepers and the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.” One or more officers engaged in such a group might have had it in for Garrett. Ward’s undercover name is Samuel Audie Hill. As he’s brought in as part of the SWAT unit, he alters his appearance to “a more SWAT-like look,” which includes a buzz cut and a shaved-off beard. (When he texts a photograph of his new style to Rowan, she responds, “I love you, anyway?”)Ward learns quickly that some of his fellow officers have strong feelings against Florida Gov. Thomas Fuller because he favors “reasonable restrictions on assault weapons,” promoted mask-wearing during the Covid-19 pandemic, and “stole” the primary election from fellow candidate and “true conservative” state Sen. Bryce Collins. Mirroring the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a coup may be in the offing. The timeliness of the story is a plus, though readers’ appreciation may vary according to their political views. The pacing is brisk; the writing is crisp (“The handshake was not a contest, but a greeting”) and the details are often amusing: “Ward was struck by the shark mounted above the bed.” Ward is a most likable protagonist and the other characters are realistic, but there are so many lieutenants, deputies, and detectives that readers may need a scorecard.
Timely and tense; a worthy addition to a thriller series.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 227
Publisher: Down & Out Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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
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