A treat for readers interested in travel, romance, and murder; join the club.
An exclusive international adventurers’ club becomes connected to the ultimate misadventure: murder.
In this second installment of Lamberson’s adventure series, American Stuart Mancini inherits from his grandfather a prestigious London flat and membership in the Kilimanjaro Club, a group that “valued fine food and drink as much as the camaraderie that came from death-defying exploration and discovery.” When Stuart goes to London in 2000 to survey his new property with his Italian girlfriend, Prima Valdocci, club member Bailey Honeybourne begs him to help locate Parnell Sumner. Parnell, a fellow club member, was apparently kidnapped in China while on a tiger-hunting expedition. Both “old goats,” Bailey and Parnell were dear friends of Stuart’s grandfather, so the protagonist feels obligated to help. He accompanies Bailey to the rugged mountains of China. There, the pair’s plans are initially waylaid when guides are found murdered. Traveling in the same area is ruthless Colorado businessman Hilliard Yates, who’s hoping to close a deal to market a male sex-enhancement drug made from tiger genitals. On Yates’ tail is Sprocket, an experienced killer with a two-inch mohawk, yellow contact lenses, and body-modification titanium bolts screwed into his skull. Sprocket botched a hit in Houston that Yates hired him to do, so now the killer wants to murder the businessman before he can retaliate for the failure. This well-written book provides plenty of unusual characters (yes, Sprocket is the standout) and multiple storylines, each offering escalating excitement. Mixed in with adventure and murder is the love affair of 40-somethings Prima and Stuart. Descriptions of China, Italy, England, Texas, and Colorado are travel guide–perfect. References to sounds are strong, such as “the hee-haw of Carabinieri sirens” and “the blur of rustling leaves and branches, stones and matter crunching beneath their boots.” Conversations and friendships are believable, but that’s not to suggest that no implausible things transpire. Though the novel can work as a stand-alone, it would be best to read the series in order as some references from the first book are not fully explained initially.
A treat for readers interested in travel, romance, and murder; join the club.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 979-8-9852013-0-7
Page Count: 474
Publisher: Hydra Heads Press
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2022
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
