A reflective, witty, and fun story that elegantly crosses genres and addresses intriguing themes.
Art-theft mystery meets small-town romance in Henley’s novel.
This tale tackles midlife crises in the town of Waterbury, Connecticut, which is portrayed as a run-down but friendly place. Forty-five-year-old Barnaby Brown is an artist and recovering alcoholic who works at a hardware store, struggles to stay sober, and is trying to move on from his wife’s early death. The disappearance of his pet parrot, Popsicle, leads to a search that introduces readers to other Waterbury residents. Barnaby experiences romantic entanglements with Lisa Nettler, a friendly if overbearing social worker, and Julia Morgan, an old friend. When one of his paintings is stolen, he turns to Lisa and Julia for help, and the investigation unearths unexpected history and emotion. The resolution of the theft occurs about 100 pages in, though, as this is not a traditional crime novel. Instead, little mysteries are sprinkled throughout the book to explore characters’ mistakes in the past, their dreams for their futures, and the town’s past. In doing so, Henley makes astute observations on youth and aging, community, and the relationship between art and life. Barnaby’s life, however, revolves around his local pub, O’Malley’s, as do the liveliest moments in the novel. The regulars at this establishment, from a sympathetic bartender to a rambling college professor, ably explore different character archetypes and give the setting a sense of history. Despite the dynamic relationships depicted at O’Malley’s, the bar chatter on the value of art comes across as a bit artificial, and Barnaby and Julia’s conversations occasionally sound stilted, as if they’re explaining their relationship to readers, rather than each other. Yet the author excels at expressing the book’s larger themes through dialogue about nostalgia and youth. Overall, the book creates a suspenseful journey for characters—and readers—trying to navigate life’s big questions.
A reflective, witty, and fun story that elegantly crosses genres and addresses intriguing themes.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64742-341-4
Page Count: 264
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.
The dramatic conclusion to the trilogy about two New England crime families begun in City on Fire (2022) and City of Dreams (2023).
Near the end of his journey, multimillionaire Danny Ryan watches a casino implode in a mushroom cloud of dust and muses about his life’s implosions: “The cancer that killed his wife, the depression that destroyed his love, the moral rot that took his soul.” Danny is from Providence, Rhode Island, and desperately tried to leave his criminal life behind him. But using a ton of ill-gotten gains, he invests heavily in Las Vegas properties. Congress is conducting an investigation into gambling that could destroy his casino business and even land him in jail. An FBI agent plans to take Danny down for major sins he’d like to repent for. Meanwhile, can he make peace with his enemies? Nope, doesn’t look like it. Even if the parties involved want to put the past behind them, the trouble is that they don’t trust each other. Is Vern Winegard setting Dan up? Is Dan setting Vern up? “Trust? Trust is children waiting for Santa Claus.” So what could have been a “Kumbaya,” nobody-wants-to-read-this story turns into a grisly bloodletting filled with language that would set Sister Mary Margaret’s wimple on fire—figuratively speaking, as she’s not in the book. But the Catholic reference is appropriate: Two of the many colorful characters of ill repute are known as the Altar Boys, serving “Last Communion” to their victims. On the law-abiding side and out of the line of fire is an ex-nun-turned-prosecutor nicknamed Attila the Nun, who’s determined to bring justice for a gory matricide. (Rhode Island really had such a person, by the way.) Finally, the prose is just fun: A friend warns Dan about Allie Licata: “In a world of sick fucks, even the sick fucks think Licata’s a sick fuck.” A couple of things to note: This not only ends the trilogy, but it also closes out the author’s career, as he has said he’ll write no more novels.
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780063079472
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
PROFILES
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