A patchy read but with a twist ending that will dazzle fans of the genre.
A shocking local murder case revives a down-on-his-luck lawyer’s unraveling career in criminal attorney Hamilton’s debut suspense thriller.
The author draws on his own life’s work as an attorney in this fast-paced debut chronicling the exploits of Canadian lawyer Hyman Kazan. Not a particularly likable nor well-adjusted protagonist, 50-something Kazan has seen better days. His legal career is sputtering, and he and his girlfriend, Briar, are on the rocks. Everything, especially the dreary Vancouver weather, seems to remind him of his shortcomings. The ideal distraction soon presents itself when Simon Westfall, a young drug-abusing migrant, is found dead outside a local clinic. Westfall’s death became immediately suspicious to a clinic nurse who noted that he didn’t have overdose levels of drugs in his system. With an undetermined cause of death, foul play is suspected, and investigators descend on the case. Kazan suspects trial judge Craig Smith, who’s bisexual, because not only was he the last person to see Westfall alive (after a druggy dalliance with him), but he’s also been secretly romancing Briar. A race against time ensues as Kazan feverishly builds his case against his prime suspect, and Smith rushes to conceal evidence and exonerate himself before he jeopardizes his political career. While Kazan’s struggle for meaning is ever present throughout the novel, it’s often punctuated with overwrought prose, as when describing Kazan’s avoidance of a mundane daily existence: “He would never let the easily swallowed opioid of routine dissolve his lost and fractured soul.” Nevertheless, there is also some assured storytelling here; Hamilton effectively weaves past and present together to fill out not only Westfall’s gritty personal history, but also Kazan’s booze-soaked despair, bad luck, and personal and professional demons. Peripheral characters are also well rendered, including Smith, the nefarious judge. As the puzzle pieces of the mystery fall into place, Kazan seems to find his footing as a rejuvenated litigator and a man. Then the author drops an unexpected but plausible ending—one that will likely undermine any previous assumptions about his misunderstood legal-eagle protagonist.
A patchy read but with a twist ending that will dazzle fans of the genre.Pub Date: July 6, 2022
ISBN: 9781663240071
Page Count: 230
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 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
© 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.
