This curiously dark legal tale boasts an undaunted, complicated hero.
A lawyer’s involvement in a murder case leads her to a much bigger and potentially deadly secret in Ross’ thriller.
One small but crucial mistake in her last case continues to haunt junior associate James Woodsen. If she wants any chance of climbing the ranks at her Boston criminal defense firm, she needs a big win. That opportunity may lie with the firm’s newest client: Damien Blackhollow, a billionaire CEO who’s been arrested for his fiancée’s fatal stabbing. James looks at the evidence that points to Damien, wondering if he could be responsible for the ritualistic symbols carved into the victim’s body. James follows a lead to Salem’s Fall, a nearby town famous for its 17th-century witch trials. Her dubious client suddenly shows up, under the pretense of “helping," as James learns local legends of rituals and human sacrifices. Someone sends James anonymous messages to warn her off the case—but the warnings are closer to threats. Ross builds a solid narrative foundation by first establishing an absorbing legal case. Readers will also be engaged by James’ troubles at work, including a desperation to “make up” for her blunder, a scornful male colleague, and some dismissing her professionally simply because she’s pretty. While mystery awaits her in Salem’s Fall, the story offers only intermittent suspense—James rarely seems worried about a killer possibly targeting her. There’s nevertheless a lot to keep readers turning the pages, from James’ own history (her father is in jail for her mother’s murder) to the discovery of other homicides that likely tie together. Hints of romance are yet another draw, as James has connections with both the “objectively yumable” (her best friend’s words) Damien and her firm’s senior partner, Quinn Kensington, who treats her like the skilled lawyer she is. What’s really happening in Salem’s Fall may not surprise savvy mystery fans, but the memorable climax will certainly shock many.
This curiously dark legal tale boasts an undaunted, complicated hero.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9780988256897
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Ic13 Books
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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
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