A propulsive debut that grips with its intelligence and frightening what ifs.
Brown’s political-financial thriller blends family drama and the shadowy economy of war.
The story opens with a gut-punch from narrator Alex Morgan: “My own father had started a business of war that was responsible for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” Alex, a newly minted financial advisor in Connecticut on his way to becoming a “Master of the Universe,” sees his life begin to fracture when he realizes that shell companies tied to his family in the British Virgin Islands may be funneling money to fuel the Russian war effort. What begins as a son’s dawning horror as he realizes that his father might be complicit in bloodshed escalates into an international plot involving oligarchs, Republican power brokers, and even an ex-president named Ronald Langston. In the Virgin Islands, Alex meets the shadowy figures his father has gotten into business with, all of whom tell him not to look too closely at the latest family venture. (“Blood washes off, Alex. Wealth doesn’t,” the lecherous Ivan hisses at him.) He also meets the bewitching Lena, who may be an ally or part of his eventual undoing. As Alex digs into his memories and travels around the world to challenge his powerful father, he puts both his family and his beliefs on the line. Brown writes in short, stinging bursts that keep the pages turning. His succinct and creative turns of phrase spin big ideas into vivid imagery (the financial conspirators are “warlords. Wielding spreadsheets like swords.”) Rapid pacing and tight characterizations make the book both compulsively readable and smartly efficient as readers follow Alex’s entertaining arc from capitalist frat boy to enlightened truth-seeker. However, that same velocity often means the author only skims the surface as big revelations and compelling details fly by with breakneck speed. Brown’s debut strives for an ambitious balance between intimate family drama and sweeping geopolitical thriller; it’s ultimately too rushed to pull both of these threads off, but he has certainly proved himself as an exciting new voice with a smart take on contemporary political thrillers.
A propulsive debut that grips with its intelligence and frightening what ifs.Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2025
ISBN: 9798999554512
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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