A suspenseful and often compelling novel.
In Keating and Heatly’s technothriller sequel, an author races against time with an unexpected ally to prevent a global catastrophe.
Henry Vanzant, a former journalist based in Breckenridge, Colorado, should be celebrating the success of his nonfiction book, an account of the criminal activity and arrest of cyberterrorist Sander Waldifrid, also known as Mr. S, who’s now in prison. However, memories of the experiences that inspired the book haunt him, including the murder of his lover, cybersecurity expert Alex Yolkova. One day, after Henry gives a radio-show interview, he’s kidnapped by Faheem El Hashem, a terrorist inspired by Bag of Tricks, who wants Henry’s former girlfriend, computer programmer Karyn Foxx, to use a program called the Master Key to hack into the root zone of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as part of a plot to destroy the internet itself. It turns out Faheem isn’t working alone; Mr. S is very much involved, despite the fact that he’s still incarcerated. Henry is rescued by a surprising savior who’s working with a cybersecurity company called Black Code. Together with a group of Russian commandos, Henry and his rescuer travel to Istanbul to rescue Karyn and stop Faheem and Mr. S—a mission that becomes more urgent as small acts of sabotage threaten the security of the internet. This second installment of Keating and Heatly’s thriller series, following Bag of Tricks: Power of the Pen (2015), is a tightly paced and engaging actioner that’s anchored by well-drawn characters and a truly chilling what-if scenario. Henry is a complex protagonist whose guilt over what happened to Alex leads him to alcohol addiction; in one scene, he even steals a bottle of vodka out of desperation: “I shake my head when I realize I’m trembling. I need a drink.” The terrorist plot at the center of the narrative is similarly well-crafted, as seemingly unrelated events build to an attack of global proportions. As this is a direct sequel, readers may want to start with the first book for more background information, although the story does offer some recapping.
A suspenseful and often compelling novel.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9798891326897
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Expert, but unsurprising.
The death of an old friend who was more than a friend sends Dr. Kay Scarpetta down her latest rabbit hole.
If every body tells a story, the corpse of 7-year-old Luna Briley sings the blues. On top of the many signs of ongoing physical abuse, there’s the fatal gunshot wound to her head. Ryder and Piper Briley, the wealthy and powerful parents who didn’t call the police until after their daughter died, insist that Luna’s death was an accident, or maybe a suicide. Scarpetta doesn’t think so, and her refusal to release the body to the Brileys’ hand-picked mortician moves them to legal action against her as Virginia’s chief medical examiner. You’d think it would be a relief to put this case aside for another when Scarpetta’s niece, Secret Service agent Lucy Farinelli, calls her and ferries her by helicopter to an abandoned Oz theme park owned by Ryder Briley, but this one’s even more heartbreaking. Scarpetta is there to examine the body of astrophysicist Sal Giordano, her close friend and former lover, who was evidently kidnapped, held in captivity for several hours, and tossed out of an unidentified aircraft. The leading suspects are the Brileys; Carrie Grethen, Lucy’s sociopathic ex-lover, with whom Scarpetta has repeatedly tangled in the past; and the UFO that dumped Giordano’s body without leaving the usual traces for air-traffic technologies to pick up. The multiple rounds of physical examinations Scarpetta conducts on both victims are every bit as meticulous and gripping as fans would expect; the killer’s identity is neither surprising nor interesting, but Cornwell juggles her trademark forensics, and the paranormal hints she’s become increasingly invested in, more dexterously than usual.
Expert, but unsurprising.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781538770382
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK TO SCREEN
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