A strong start to a new series promises more mystery and romance for an up-and-coming FBI profiler.
An FBI agent and profiler returns to her hometown to catch a serial killer.
Laurel Snow was a child prodigy who started college at the age of 11. Fast-tracked through graduate school and the FBI, Laurel is an accomplished profiler even though she’s not yet 30. Meanwhile, in the remote Oregon valley where she grew up, teenagers discover several decomposing bodies. It is quickly determined to be the work of a serial killer, and Laurel is sent to investigate because of her knowledge of the area and community. Due to the location of the remains, the responsibility for the investigation is shared between the FBI and local authorities. Laurel partners with Fish and Wildlife Officer Huck Rivers to investigate who in the town might have had access to the remote mountain site. Laurel and Huck’s investigation is compromised when the killer accelerates his pattern, kidnapping and killing fresh victims in order to taunt Laurel. Zanetti is a master of romantic suspense, creating tightly plotted mysteries with delicious twists and turns. Laurel’s interactions with the locals create a large pool of suspects that will keep the reader guessing. As is often a hallmark in the romantic suspense genre, Laurel uncovers long-hidden personal secrets of her own as she works the serial killer case. This first book in a new series follows more of an urban fantasy model, with the main mystery being solved by the end of the novel but several subplots left dangling for future books. Romance fans should be warned that this includes the budding romance between Laurel and Huck, which does not have a happily-ever-after in this installment.
A strong start to a new series promises more mystery and romance for an up-and-coming FBI profiler.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4201-5432-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Zebra/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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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