by Leanne Kale Sparks ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2023
The characters’ amiability and competence make the final act sting, though seasoned readers may be expecting it.
The investigation of a child trafficking case is put on the back burner when a detective’s niece goes missing in what he can only hope is a coincidence.
FBI Special Agent Kendall Beck and Denver Homicide Detective Adam Taylor cross paths once again after working the murder of Kendall’s best friend. This time, their two specializations (Adam: dead guys; Kendall: kids) dovetail when a shooting at a Colorado minimart leaves several bodies behind and a child vanishes into thin air. It doesn’t seem like there’s much to learn except that a good Samaritan believes the missing girl may have been the victim of trafficking. As he explains to Kendall, the previously not-dead guy at the minimart didn’t exactly look like the fatherly type. But the trafficking suspects close ranks before Kendall and Adam can get started, and the two are still trying to figure out what to do next when the unthinkable happens: Adam’s niece, Frankie, goes into the locker room after a hockey game and never comes out. The hours counting down at the beginning of each chapter indicate a limited amount of time for the investigating duo to find Frankie still alive, and that time dwindles as they keep hitting dead ends. Though the case is close to home, Adam’s brother, Mark, and sister-in-law, Poppy, have no information to share. But Poppy’s evasiveness puts Adam on edge, particularly when Mark reveals similar concerns about his wife. Surely Frankie’s absence couldn’t be related to the broader child trafficking Kendall and Adam are investigating—because, if it were, the danger could be worse than anyone imagines.
The characters’ amiability and competence make the final act sting, though seasoned readers may be expecting it.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781639102303
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Crooked Lane
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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by Freida McFadden ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 4, 2025
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
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by Freida McFadden ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 2025
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
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