WHEN THE STARS GO DARK - Kirkus Reviews

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WHEN THE STARS GO DARK

by Paula McLain ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 13, 2021

A muted yet thrilling multilayered mystery enriched by keen psychological and emotional insight.

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A San Francisco homicide detective traumatized by personal tragedy and the many horrors she's encountered returns to Mendocino, once her childhood sanctuary, only to be drawn into the case of a missing girl and the unresolved mysteries of her own past.

“For as long as I could remember, I’d had reasons to disappear,” Anna Hart muses. “I was an expert at making myself invisible.” Orphaned at 8 and reared in a series of foster homes, this police detective has an unwavering commitment to the cases of missing and murdered children and an uncanny “radar for victims.” Then her own family is shattered by a death she might have prevented. Anna flees to Mendocino, where a foster family once provided not only love, but also survival lessons and where Anna agrees to help a local sheriff—also a childhood friend—as he investigates the case of a teenage girl who seems to have been abducted. But the disappearance of Cameron Curtis recalls for Anna a more distant Mendocino mystery: the vanishing of a childhood friend of hers in 1972. And when two more girls are abducted shortly after Cameron—one of them the real-life Polly Klaas—the stage seems set for a predictable serial killer hunt. But McLain largely avoids that well-trodden path to craft instead a psychological thriller that deftly evokes both the entrancing landscape of the Mendocino hills and the rough terrain of shattered lives. “No one can save anyone,” the haunted Anna laments at the outset, but the novel’s convincing outcome, while grimly realistic, permits her to think otherwise. Most memorable of all are the girls, past and present, who emerge here not as convenient victims but as vulnerable, believable characters.

A muted yet thrilling multilayered mystery enriched by keen psychological and emotional insight.

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Pub Date: April 13, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-23789-2

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

Categories:

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE |

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More by Paula McLain

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  LOVE AND RUIN

  by Paula McLain

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  CIRCLING THE SUN

  by Paula McLain

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  THE PARIS WIFE

  by Paula McLain

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BOOK LIST The Most Anticipated Nonfiction of Spring 2026

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2. Reviews
3. THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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THE SECRET OF SECRETS

by Dan Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 2025

A standout in the series.

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The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.

“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.

A standout in the series.

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Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025

ISBN: 9780385546898

Page Count: 688

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025

Categories:

SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE

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More by Dan Brown

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  ORIGIN

  by Dan Brown

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  THE DA VINCI CODE

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  INFERNO

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BOOK LIST The Most Anticipated Nonfiction of Spring 2026

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• New York Times Bestseller

GONE BEFORE GOODBYE

by Harlan Coben & Reese Witherspoon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 2025

Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.

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• New York Times Bestseller

A widowed and disgraced plastic surgeon is drawn into a Russian oligarch’s evil schemes.

Witherspoon’s adult fiction debut, co-authored with thrillermeister Coben, opens as heart surgery performed by Dr. Marc Adams in a North African refugee camp is interrupted by the explosive invasion of armed militants. It's the last we will see of Marc in this dimension. The next chapter jumps ahead one year to a ceremony at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where his widow, Maggie McCabe, is supposed to be presenting an award in honor of her mother. Miserable and anxious about appearing in public after having lost her medical license, she consults with her late husband on her phone—not via supernatural means, but using a "griefbot," an amazingly lifelike and functional AI app created by her genius sister, Sharon. Once the griefbot coaxes her to brave the sneering masses, she learns she’s been replaced on the podium anyway. But she runs into a former professor, a celebrity plastic surgeon, who requests a meeting with her at his office in New York and won’t take no for an answer. Next thing she knows, there’s $10 million in her bank account and she’s on a private plane heading to a palace outside Moscow where she’s been engaged to perform off-the-record surgery on billionaire Oleg Ragoravich (new face) and his girlfriend, Nadia (new boobs). And…we’re off. A whirl of surgeries, chases, and escapes ensues as Maggie gradually comes to understand who these people are and what they have in mind for her, and how it connects to Marc and their missing friend and business partner, Trace Packer. She is aided by her delightful father-in-law, Porkchop, owner of a biker bar in New York City and a very handy guy to have on your team if you've run afoul of an international criminal organization. From the palace in Rublevka the action moves to Dubai and then Bordeaux, climaxing in a high-stakes illegal heart transplant. But wait—is Marc really dead? What happened to Trace? Who is Nadia really? Though these smoldering questions don’t quite catch fire, it's a good first try for Witherspoon.

Maybe not the most thrilling thriller, but the role of AI in coping with grief gives this novel pathos and interest.

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Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025

ISBN: 9781538774700

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025

Categories:

GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER

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