This propulsive, haunted thriller proves that competition for New York City real estate really can be deadly.
Although a surprise inheritance sounds like good luck, it turns out to be anything but in a tense, twisty thriller.
New Yorkers Rosie and Chad Lowan have spent most of the first year of their marriage caring for his dying uncle Ivan. Rosie, the novel’s engaging narrator, expects Ivan’s long-estranged daughter, Dana, to inherit his dreamy Park Avenue apartment, so she’s shocked to discover after his death that he’s left it to her and Chad. It’s a huge boon—Chad is an aspiring actor, and Rosie has published one bestselling true-crime book but is struggling to start a second, so money is always tight. The apartment in the elegant, century-old Windermere is not just a place to live but a multi-million-dollar asset. Dana, however, is not just surprised to be cut out of Ivan’s will but furious. The couple’s joy is marred not only by her rage but by odd goings-on in the building. At the behest of her editor and BFF, Max, Rosie focuses her next book on the Windermere’s grisly history of residents who died in murders, suicides, and bizarre accidents. Does the building bear some sort of curse—and if so, is it all in the past? As first one person in Rosie’s orbit and then another die, she becomes suspicious of people like the Windermere’s longtime doorman, Abi, and the kindly old couple across the hall, Charles and Ella Aldridge, who have lived there for decades and take much interest in Rosie’s efforts to get pregnant. And is Chad, a golden-haired charmer, as perfect as he seems? If all this reminds you of Rosemary’s Baby, it’s meant to—the book is salted with references to that classic melding of mystery and horror, and it vibrates with the same sense of escalating dread. But Unger builds her own fast-moving, creepy combination of thriller and horror in one of her best books yet.
This propulsive, haunted thriller proves that competition for New York City real estate really can be deadly.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780778333340
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Park Row Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
“Nasty little fellows…always get their comeuppance,” a movie character once said. Deeply satisfying.
Following the mysterious disappearance of his wife, a struggling London novelist journeys to a remote Scottish island to try to get his mojo back—but all, of course, is not what it seems.
Grady Green hits the pinnacle of his publishing career on the same night that his life goes off the rails—first his book lands on the New York Times bestseller list, and then his wife, Abby, goes missing on her way home. A year later, Grady is a mere shadow of his former self: out of money and out of ideas. So, when his agent, Abby’s godmother, suggests that he spend some time on the Isle of Amberly, in a log cabin left to her by one of her writers, it seems as good a plan as any. With free housing for himself and his dog and a beautiful, distraction-free environment, maybe he can finally complete the next novel. But from the very beginning, Grady’s experiences with Amberly seem weird, if not downright ominous: As a visitor, he’s not allowed to bring his car onto the island; the local businesses are only open for a few hours at a time; and there are no birds. At all. Not to mention the skeletal hand he finds buried under the floorboards of the cabin, the creepy harmonica music in the woods, and the occasional sighting of a woman in a red coat who’s a dead ringer for Abby. As Grady falls deeper and deeper into insomnia and alcoholism, he begins to realize his being on the island is no accident—and that should make him very afraid. Through occasional chapters from before Abby’s disappearance, told from her point of view, we learn that Grady is not necessarily a reliable narrator, and the book’s slow unfolding of dread, mystery, and then truth is both creative and well-paced. Every chapter heading is an oxymoron, like the title, reminding us of the contradictions at the heart of every story.
“Nasty little fellows…always get their comeuppance,” a movie character once said. Deeply satisfying.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781250337788
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
A potent and surprising novel by the ever-reliable Crais.
Hired to find the father of celebrity “muffin girl” Traci Beller 10 years after his disappearance, PI Elvis Cole uncovers a nefarious plot that puts his life and those he contacts at risk.
The sweetly likable Traci, now 23, has amassed a huge following with her website, The Baker Next Door, and on social media. Against the advice and self-interest of the people who over-manage her career, she decides to find out what happened to her father. Cole quickly determines that he was last seen at the SurfMutt hamburger stand, where he gave a ride to Anya Given, a troubled 15-year-old whose mother, Sadie, was late in picking her up from the skate park across the street. With the reluctant help of a scattered young woman who used to work at the burger joint, Cole tracks down Anya and Sadie, who is eventually revealed to have a criminal past. For his efforts, he’s jumped by a small gang of men who send him to the hospital with the worst beating of his life. (Asked by a nurse what his name is, the best he can guess is “Los Angeles.”) Still in recovery, Cole and Joe Pike, his ex-Marine partner, trace his attackers to Sadie, with unexpected results. As ever, Crais draws the reader in via his protagonist’s casual, dryly humorous manner and the book’s relaxed ties to classic noir. Slowly but surely, the plot gains intensity and deadly purpose. Just when you think the missing persons case is solved, Crais ratchets things up with a devastating follow-through. This is the L.A. novelist’s 20th Cole mystery, following such efforts as The Watchman (2007) and Racing the Light (2022). It may be his most powerful.
A potent and surprising novel by the ever-reliable Crais.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780525535768
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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