Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

When two FBI agents are killed in the line of duty, they discover death isn't at all what they imagined.Sakey (Written in Fire, 2016, etc.) follows up his incredible Brilliance trilogy with an otherworldly stand-alone thriller about a subterranean war between gods and monsters. The book opens with a story about a young boy in a cannibalistic horror scene on a ship at sea circa 1532. Then the book cuts to the present day, where FBI Agent Claire McCoy is leading a task force hunting the sniper terrorizing Chicago. She's also newly in love with fellow agent Will Brody. But when Brody runs down the sniper, Simon Tucks, he's killed instantly by a bomb. For Claire, that should have been the end of Will Brody, and yet....Next, Brody awakens in an ethereal version of Chicago leached of color and deprived of technology. His new companions explain that this is the Echo, a kind of purgatory for souls killed suddenly, violently. Unfortunately, this fate also falls upon Claire when Simon Tucks kills her in a suicide bombing, reuniting them even in death. From here, Sakey spins out an ambitious mythology that mixes horror, police procedural, and tense action with big questions about the nature of existence. In this new world, Eaters kill other people all over again to gain their life force. There is also a race of Elders, most notably our cannibal Edmund, who have lived hundreds of years by torturing the living. "All the random, inexplicable brutalities," Sakey writes. "The school shooters and psychotic Uber drivers. The mothers who drowned their children. The serial killers with their duct tape and their butcher knives. The maniacs who fired round after round into crowded nightclubs, pausing only to reload. The atrocities for which there was no answer." It's a disturbing book born in dark times but one in which Sakey employs all his storytelling gifts to craft a noodle-bender of the first order. A love story enmeshed in a twisty thriller that peels back the universe to see what lies beneath.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

When two FBI agents are killed in the line of duty, they discover death isn't at all what they imagined.Sakey (Written in Fire, 2016, etc.) follows up his incredible Brilliance trilogy with an otherworldly stand-alone thriller about a subterranean war between gods and monsters. The book opens with a story about a young boy in a cannibalistic horror scene on a ship at sea circa 1532. Then the book cuts to the present day, where FBI Agent Claire McCoy is leading a task force hunting the sniper terrorizing Chicago. She's also newly in love with fellow agent Will Brody. But when Brody runs down the sniper, Simon Tucks, he's killed instantly by a bomb. For Claire, that should have been the end of Will Brody, and yet....Next, Brody awakens in an ethereal version of Chicago leached of color and deprived of technology. His new companions explain that this is the Echo, a kind of purgatory for souls killed suddenly, violently. Unfortunately, this fate also falls upon Claire when Simon Tucks kills her in a suicide bombing, reuniting them even in death. From here, Sakey spins out an ambitious mythology that mixes horror, police procedural, and tense action with big questions about the nature of existence. In this new world, Eaters kill other people all over again to gain their life force. There is also a race of Elders, most notably our cannibal Edmund, who have lived hundreds of years by torturing the living. "All the random, inexplicable brutalities," Sakey writes. "The school shooters and psychotic Uber drivers. The mothers who drowned their children. The serial killers with their duct tape and their butcher knives. The maniacs who fired round after round into crowded nightclubs, pausing only to reload. The atrocities for which there was no answer." It's a disturbing book born in dark times but one in which Sakey employs all his storytelling gifts to craft a noodle-bender of the first order. A love story enmeshed in a twisty thriller that peels back the universe to see what lies beneath.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Edgar-finalist Sakey follows his Brilliance trilogy with a remarkably conceived and passionately realized supernatural thriller featuring two dedicated FBI agents. Will Brody, a former Marine who-s now an FBI special agent, is killed in an operation to save Chicago from a serial sniper and finds himself in the -echo,- the first of a series of nesting postmortem existences. Will-s lover and boss, Claire McCoy, later joins him in the echo after she dies pursuing the sniper. Together Will and Claire, who have become each other-s -calm,- battle Edmund, a centuries-old satanic entity who feeds on the spirits of other people. Flashes of Edmund-s evil machinations recur sporadically throughout this gripping tale, whose underlying message emphasizes the need for both individuals and groups to take responsibility for their actions. Balancing lyric romance and altruistic self-sacrifice with horrifying scenes of cannibalism and wrenching violence, Sakey comes up with a fascinating answer to the eternal question of why humans exist. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media Group. (July)