An enjoyable romp through the darkest of ages.
A historical saga about a motley crew of English fighters making life miserable for the French during the early days of the Hundred Years’ War.
Ten strong when they land in Normandy in 1346, the Essex Dogs, as the crew is called, are led by Loveday FitzTalbot, a faded veteran struggling with deep personal losses. A colorful and contrary mix of English, Welsh, and Scots, the Dogs range from the temperamental Father, whose days of preaching were already long past when he suffered brain damage from a falling roof tile, to Romford, a young, cocksure archer who has a habit of getting in trouble. Their job in Normandy is to first find the enemy—not always easy considering "the ingenious French tactic of fleeing at the first sight of trouble"—and then rout them. When the English and French armies do meet, as in Caen, rivers of blood are spilled. Loveday, who must rely on his wits as much as his sword to survive, must also contend with his newly developing conscience. An impeccably researched "you are there" novel with a real-time approach, Jones' entertaining fiction debut (following nonfiction books including Crusaders, 2019) moves episodically from encounter to life-threatening encounter. For all its violence, the book hums with black humor. Jones is at his best when humor and violence come together: "The head flew off, tumbled once in the air and landed by Loveday's face, so that they were almost nose to nose. Its eyes seemed to widen hugely, then the eyelids fluttered closed." Retrieving three knights' publicly displayed skulls in Paris against all odds is an undertaking that's as much fun as a good heist scene. It will be hard to top those scenes in Jones' planned sequels.
An enjoyable romp through the darkest of ages.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-65378-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
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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