An unforgiving past becomes a present-day menace in this gripping romantic thriller.
In Stanton’s thriller, an American falls for an Argentine woman whose dark family secrets may prove deadly.
In 1990, Los Angeles newspaper journalist Robert Wells catches a flight to Buenos Aires. On the day he lands, he meets Gabriela Roca Dafiume, a 20-something doctor who immediately helps him forget his recent divorce. She lives with her parents and her younger brother and is largely secretive; she doesn’t answer all of Robert’s questions and seems intent on keeping him away from her home. Things take a startling turn when Robert receives friendly warnings to avoid Gabriela’s family and full-on threats are left at his hotel. But the couple’s romance only deepens, both physically and emotionally. They can’t hide their relationship from her father, César Roca Steele, whom Gabriela describes as “possessive.” There’s a chance he already knows about them, as he likely has people following Robert and Gabriela. If it’s true César had something to do with one of Gabriela’s past lovers disappearing, then Robert is in serious danger. Stanton’s slow-burn story develops an absorbing romance. The couple’s shared scenes gradually intensify, and it’s easy to understand why Robert doesn’t hightail it back to L.A. A sinister tone pervades the narrative; César always seems to know where Robert is or what he’s up to, making Robert’s plan to unearth proof of wrongdoing all the more unnerving. Further reinforcing the novel’s suspense is a mystery surrounding the generally tight-lipped Roca family involving Gabriela and her brother, a priest. Throughout the narrative, the author aptly details Buenos Aires and its people. One passage memorably evoking life outside the lovers’ bedroom describes “aromas of coffee, tucos or tomato sauces, chitterlings and churrascos from the neighbors’ kitchens” and “windblown fig leaves rubbing like sandpaper against the balcony.”
An unforgiving past becomes a present-day menace in this gripping romantic thriller.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781962984492
Page Count: 343
Publisher: Waterside Productions
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.
Following her father’s sudden death, Aisling Swann is secretly horrified when her mother begins to date again—and she quickly becomes suspicious of this new flame.
Four years ago: A mysterious male narrator reflects upon his relationship with his wife—along with a few pointed comments about how she is aging. It quickly becomes apparent that this self-proclaimed “very pleasant” man is not who he seems; he already has a girlfriend on the side, and he’s playing both women with sob stories about his job and his traumatic past while taking money from them. Even as they get more and more frustrated with his lack of communication during ever-lengthening absences, he still gives them what they want: “a top-notch husband.” In the present day, Ash Swann; her brother, Arlo; and their mother, Nina, mourn the loss of her charismatic father, Paddy, a successful chef with a chain of lucrative restaurants. Nina receives a sympathy note from a man who claims to have worked closely with Paddy in the industry, which leads to a robust online flirtation that moves into the real world about a year after her husband’s death. Ash is living at home, mired in grief as well as her own mental health struggles, and she’s none too happy to see her mom dating—but particularly this handsome, egregiously suave Nick Radcliffe. Ash begins to notice some inconsistencies with his stories and his past, so she enlists Paddy’s ex-girlfriend Jane to help her investigate. Meanwhile, Ash’s story continues to intercut that of the mysterious man who is now married to his former girlfriend—and still up to his old tricks. Jewell’s cutting between past and present certainly allows revelations to ooze out at a slow, controlled pace; even as the reader makes obvious connections, the full picture remains obscure. Jewell has written some incredibly engaging and strong female characters, Nina, Ash, and Jane foremost among them. What would it have been like to split the narrative between them instead of giving so much voice—and thus narrative power—to the male antagonist?
Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9781668033876
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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