A killer who once stalked Florence Nightingale’s nurses seems to be resurrected in this satisfying thriller.
The second historical mystery featuring former chief detective inspector Charles Fields revolves around the heroic work of Florence Nightingale.
In The Darwin Affair (2019), Mason introduced readers to a fictional London detective who was the inspiration for the intrepid Inspector Bucket in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House—indeed, Dickens appeared as a character. Fields returns in this book, set in 1867, no longer a member of the Metropolitan Police but working as a private detective. He’s been hired “by a member of Parliament who harbored misgivings concerning his much younger wife,” and Fields quickly determines she seems to be having an affair with a politician of the opposition party. But Fields’ surveillance leads to his discovering her body after she’s been strangled. The most disturbing detail for him is a scrap of cloth, embroidered with a rose, left inside her mouth. He’s seen such scraps before, several of them, when he was dispatched in 1855 to Crimea to investigate a series of attacks on the nurses working there under the command of the famous, fearless Florence Nightingale. Although the wounded troops revere them for their loving care, the “medical men and the military brass had no time for Nightingale or her women.” When those women start to die, Fields’ pursuit turns urgent, and he returns to London only after the man responsible is dead. Or so he thought. Now, 12 years later, women are dying again just as the issue of women’s suffrage heats up. His experience in Crimea has had lasting effects on him, not least of which is his marriage to Jane Rolly, one of Nightingale’s nurses, but now it all comes rushing back. The book’s first part, set mainly in Crimea, is compelling, in part because Nightingale herself is a fascinating character. The later section is not quite as absorbing, largely because Nightingale fades into the background as Fields chases both the killer and the connection between the two sets of crimes. It does boast a blockbuster ending in subterranean London, rich historical detail, and a cast of real characters, from Benjamin Disraeli to Dickens himself.
A killer who once stalked Florence Nightingale’s nurses seems to be resurrected in this satisfying thriller.Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781643750392
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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.
