A clever, hyperonline thriller heavy on the cultural commentary.
In Wang’s novel, an unemployed Brooklynite is accused of his ex-boyfriend’s murder.
Pete Chan has had enough. It’s June 7, 2024, the beginning of Pride Month, and musician Charli XCX’s newest release, BRAT, is the perfect soundtrack for changing his life. Pete walks into his dreary office and quits his job as a communications coordinator on the spot, then heads to his boyfriend Toby’s house to quit him as well. Toby Lu is “a stereotypical artist: thirty-one, living off [Pete’s] hard-earned money.” Before the day is over, Pete’s moved out of the house owned by Toby’s wealthy dad and is living in his friend Johnny’s spare room. Through Johnny, Pete gains two more valuable things: a barista job at the cozy, plant-cluttered Volcano Café and the code to Johnny’s gun safe. Pete adores his return to barista life, but is promptly fired when he throws an iced latte into the face of a hyper-demanding customer. The incident winds up online, and soon Pete’s a viral internet icon, a “BRATista” remixed into countless Charli XCX-soundtracked videos that hail him as a fighter for service workers everywhere. A transformative night at the Charli XCX-led SWEAT tour convinces Pete to become a pop music critic, but he’s quickly castigated for his lukewarm review of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album. Hurt, he tracks down his primary digital tormentor, a Chicagoan named Frankie, and takes a road trip to a trendy Chicago cafe to confront him, carrying Johnny’s loaded gun in the backseat “just for security.” When he returns after a whirlwind weekend with the surprisingly kind—and hot—Frankie, police inform him that Toby was found shot to death, and Pete’s the primary suspect. Wang’s hyperspecific digressions on Brooklyn millennial gay life—including specialty coffee culture, hookup app etiquette, and a track-by-track breakdown of the SWEAT tour—are deeply entertaining but long-winded. Pete spends much of the novel interfacing solely with a screen, and it’s both fun and exhausting to read the play-by-plays of his digital activities, rendered in fond but frustrated detail.
A clever, hyperonline thriller heavy on the cultural commentary.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781069506412
Page Count: 218
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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