A captivating thriller both historically instructive and dramatically engrossing.
In 1944, some geologists operating in Venezuela happen upon a boat smuggling uranium from Germany to Argentina—a discovery that endangers their lives—in this novel.
When it becomes increasingly clear that the Allied forces will emerge victorious in World War II, Ernst Dussell, a German scientist working on the construction of an atomic bomb, makes plans to start his life anew. He intends to send secret uranium to Argentina and sell it to Juan Perón, the vice president of the country, who’s eager to use nuclear power to make his nation less vulnerable to the United States. Ernst hires lab technician Karl Strock to oversee the conveyance of the uranium, but the boat chartered, the Estrella Blanca, experiences mechanical difficulties and becomes stranded on the Orinoco River in Venezuela. Jerry MacDonald, an American geologist and head of an oil company operating in Maracaibo, finds the boat while conducting field research. Debbie Borowski, a member of Jerry’s team, notices that a Geiger counter shows that powerful radiation is emanating from the Estrella Blanca, news Jerry communicates to the American State Department. This fateful decision imperils him and his crew when the U.S. government decides to raid the boat and purloin its uranium, a dramatic turn of events depicted with electrifying suspense by Sears. The author’s research is remarkable—he authentically captures not only the flight of Nazis to neutral territory so common at the time, but also the terrestrial specifics of the Orinoco Delta with impressively vivid details. But Sears’ writing lacks a strong literary quality—in fact, it can sometimes be a bit banal. Here, Jerry realizes an FBI raid could be dangerous: “Things just got more complicated. Jerry thought.” In addition, a violent scene in the final act is anticlimactic and contrived. Nonetheless, this remains a riveting story, intelligently conceived and executed.
A captivating thriller both historically instructive and dramatically engrossing.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781954676381
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Indigo River Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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