An engagingly original novel that’s by turns clever and discomfiting.
In Tree’s thriller set in late-1970s London, a college student finds himself swept up in a radical group’s violent plans.
The tale’s unnamed narrator is a 19-year-old who manages to get accepted into a venerable academic institution, Wolverton College at Wellingford University, despite his modest background and, by his own account, being “bereft of oomph.” But he’s full of youthful discontent. He joins the Real Workers’ Party, reads widely in Marxist literature, and believes, however inarticulately, that society is fundamentally corrupt: “All I’ve seen so far is that the system is rigged, rigged from top to bottom, you’re inserted into it at one level or another and once you’re in you have to do your best with your allotted lot.” Meanwhile, London is roiled by terrorist bombings; a group called The Vanguard claims responsibility but doesn’t seem to have any cause to push. The protagonist’s girlfriend, Beth, surmises that they’re a “bunch of nutters.” An intimidating MI5 agent, James Delaney, compels him to try to make contact with them, but he’s kidnapped in the process by Vanguard operatives. Their leader turns out to be Ralph Finns, an old school friend who hails from a wealthy family—a plot twist that readers may see coming. Otherwise, though, this is a stunningly unpredictable work; for one thing, it turns out that The Vanguard isn’t a political group at all. They’re an assemblage of people seeking to take down those who have victimized them in the past. This is an offbeat book that effectively combines humorous moments with disturbingly dark content, including descriptions of sexual abuse that are very difficult to read. But it’s also a gripping work that takes on the hypocrisy of the society in which the protagonist lives—one that confirms his intuitions, if not his Marxist leanings.
An engagingly original novel that’s by turns clever and discomfiting.Pub Date: July 19, 2023
ISBN: 9798398211672
Page Count: 241
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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