A brisk, enthralling story of power struggles, loyalty, and oodles of werewolves.
In Allen’s novel, the second in a series, a werewolf reluctantly takes on a leadership role and faces resistance from an especially malicious rival.
Caleb Jacobsen loves teaching history at a community college in Washington state. He also just happens to be a 184-year-old werewolf who lives peacefully among the humans. In fact, the only reason he killed a fellow lycanthrope a few years ago was to help them, including his fiancée, Marla Moreno. But that was the Global Alpha, and now a small group of werewolves insist that Caleb claim the throne, as the Global Pack is in disarray. He does so, quickly implementing new rules and canceling his predecessor’s plans for world domination (“I will not tolerate the indiscriminate slaughtering of billions of humans who have caused us no harm”). An infuriated German werewolf named Logan Olivier believes he should be Global Alpha. Logan and his minion, Jacques LaFleur, consider tarnishing Caleb’s name among packs around the world—but simply killing Caleb, or possibly someone he loves, may be an even easier route to securing Logan that throne. Allen’s tautly written follow-up to Blood Red Moon (2021) satisfyingly continues the series while aptly catering to new readers as well. This book has a story all its own, even as it stems from Caleb’s (succinctly recapped) previous ordeals. The primary cast is refreshingly multilayered. Logan and Jacques are indisputably villains—they hunt humans for sport—but some readers may find it hard to outright denounce Jacques for his WWII-era Nazi-killing spree, which doesn’t differ much from recurring hero Caleb killing a human for being a bully and a thief. Despite the prominence of the vicious baddies, the book has relatively few werewolf clashes, and Caleb, as the Global Alpha, doesn’t encounter many challenges to overcome. Still, violence permeates this tale, with spurting blood and bodies left in pieces. This installment culminates in an ending that’s both a solid wrap-up and a subtle tease for a third series entry.
A brisk, enthralling story of power struggles, loyalty, and oodles of werewolves.Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9798313931272
Page Count: 354
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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