This grim, epic crime drama is rich in history and thrilling moments.
An Irish ex-boxer seeks vengeance against a New York–based criminal organization in Konvitz’s historical novel.
When professional boxing is banned in 1900, Billy McGuinness steps out of the ring indefinitely. The 30-something man, who’s also “one of Chicago’s most feared gamblers,” is ready to establish himself elsewhere. He sets up a gambling riverboat in St. Louis and later a brewery back in Chicago, but by 1911, he’s working toward a much darker goal. The Aronbergs, a family he’s close to, are brutally murdered in New York, and McGuinness attributes the crime to the System—Irish gangsters tied to crooked cops and dirty politics. He concocts an elaborate plan that involves bumping elbows with the likes of Jim Monaghan, the man McGuinness surmises to be behind the Aronbergs’ deaths. He proposes to the Irish gangsters the notion of a “national syndicate” that they must organize themselves before the Jewish and Italian criminals take over. It’s a power play that may catch Monaghan’s attention but won’t, McGuinness believes, turn out in the System’s favor. All of this demands the former boxer steer clear of any connection to the Aronbergs, lest his revenge scheme come to light. The situation grows even more dangerous when McGuinness gets his hands on an incriminating item that will prove Monaghan is dirty, along with copious others who’ll want to ensure this evidence never surfaces. To see his plan through, McGuinness makes full use of his allies (including a Chicago crime boss and a New York reporter), his highly capable fists, and the occasional explosive.
Konvitz’s sprawling tale opens in 1878 with an exhilarating boxing match–cum–street fight. This is crucial scene-setting for the early 20th-century characters, including McGuinness. Following this prologue, however, is a leisurely paced decade (1900-1910) full of exposition detailing McGuiness’ businesses in St. Louis and Chicago (and even Monaghan’s wedding party). Still, the author fills the story with diverting historical nods, such as the impending 1904 Summer Olympics in the United States and a news story about the Titanic prior to its fateful maiden voyage. There’s likewise a bevy of true-life figures mingling with fictional characters, from newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It surely won’t surprise readers that this cast of lawbreakers teems with unsavory types. McGuinness is the quintessential antihero who doesn’t shy away from violence while seeking retribution—what he calls justice—for a murdered family. Myriad others in this novel don’t care who they hurt or kill; their seemingly endless rounds of dialogue are littered with profanities and racial slurs. A significant portion of the story unfolds in New York, where tension is perpetually high—there’s more than one shocking demise, and McGuinness isn’t the only one deceiving people. The final act includes a series of memorable epilogues that follow some of the characters to the mid-1900s.
This grim, epic crime drama is rich in history and thrilling moments.Pub Date: June 17, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 531
Publisher: 89th Street Press
Review Posted Online: May 12, 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
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
