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AFTERTASTE

A tasty variation on the supernatural thriller.

A chef who can cook food that reunites diners with their deceased loved ones finds out that’s not such a great idea.

A year after his father’s unexpected death, 11-year-old Konstantin “Kostya” Duhovny mysteriously gets the taste of his father’s favorite food, pechonka, in his mouth. As an adult, wracked with guilt because he and his father quarreled at their last meeting, tortured by memories of being a social outcast in school and of a mother who simply stopped coping after losing her husband, Kostya gets by with menial jobs and binge-eating, baffled by the mysterious ability whose purpose he doesn’t know. Until one night, mistaken for the bartender in a speakeasy where he washes dishes, he gets the taste of a drink in his mouth—the favorite drink of a drunken customer’s dead wife. He mixes it, and the wife’s ghost appears. Both spirit and widower seem to get closure from this final meeting, although Maura Struk, the psychic Kostya consults about his gift, warns him, “Don’t ever make their food again…you’re no match for the Afterlife.” Kostya ignores her advice when sinister Russian businessman (read: gangster) Viktor Musizchka offers him the chance to become a very special kind of restaurateur, making dishes to summon their ghosts for grieving survivors—for a hefty price. Even Maura, who re-enters the novel to become the love of his life, encourages him, and Kostya seems bound for success. Of course, things are not so simple, and debut novelist Lavelle spins a twisty plot filled with mouthwatering descriptions of food and some very hungry ghosts. Both Maura and Viktor have dark hidden motives, and the hilarious running narration between chapters of “The Konstantin Duhovny Culinary Experience” by his best friend, Frankie (the novel’s most vivid character), in time reveals itself as another menacing element. The catastrophic opening night of Kostya’s restaurant provides a bravura climax, followed by a poignant final twist.

A tasty variation on the supernatural thriller.

Pub Date: May 20, 2025

ISBN: 9781668061596

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025

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THE WOMAN IN SUITE 11

An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.

Travel writer Lo Blacklock is back. Ten years after the events of The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), she's attending the opening of a lavish Swiss hotel when, once again, a mystery intervenes.

A decade after she almost died on a luxury cruise and ended up exposing a murder plot, travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock is trying to get back into the business post-Covid-19 and post–maternity leave. When she's invited to an exclusive hotel launch by the Leidmann Group on the shores of Switzerland’s gorgeous Lake Geneva, her supportive husband, Judah, insists that she should go, and her old boss, Rowan, says that if Lo can score an interview with the reclusive Marcus Leidmann, she’ll publish it in the Financial Times. Leaving Judah and the kids at home in New York, Lo is surprised by a last-minute upgrade to first class, which kicks off her trip in style. The hotel is appropriately awe-inspiring in both scenic location and effortless luxury, and Lo starts to put the memories of last trip’s trauma behind her, thinking that maybe she can just enjoy the experience this time. But then, at dinner, she's surprised to see at least three guests who were also on that original cruise, and when she finds a mysterious note in her room saying "Please come to suite 11 as soon as possible," she gets another shock. To quote William Faulkner, she realizes that “the past is never dead,” and soon Lo is careening across Europe on her way to England, only to find herself embroiled in another murder. The back half of the novel offers her the opportunity to continue her amateur sleuthing, and while she avoids much of the physical danger that plagued her on the cruise a decade ago, she is in very real legal trouble. This is the prolific Ware’s first sequel, and it's fun to spend time with Lo again, as she's both savvy and kindhearted. Unfortunately, the mystery is not as atmospheric and gripping as usual for Ware, though even a lesser Ruth Ware thriller is still worth reading.

An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.

Pub Date: July 8, 2025

ISBN: 9781668025628

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025

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THE WEDDING PEOPLE

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.

Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

Pub Date: July 30, 2024

ISBN: 9781250899576

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024

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