Terrific characters, vivid settings, and a deliciously dastardly, cunningly constructed plot.
An ambitious aspiring writer gets a dream job working for her favorite author.
Andrews' devilishly clever debut opens at a publishing-house holiday party in a New York bar where editorial assistant Florence Darrow and her colleagues are debating "the question asked in countless magazine articles, online forums, and publishing lunches all over town": Who is the author behind the pseudonym Maud Dixon? Someone says they've heard it's a man! As one of the millions of fans of Dixon's debut novel, Mississippi Foxtrot, Florence dismisses the importance of the author's gender. "She knew that, whoever she was, she was an outsider, like Florence herself." Later that night, Florence ends up in a hotel with her editorial director, who happens to be married to a famous actress. "He must have known," Florence later muses, "that sleeping with a young assistant who worked for him had the potential to destroy both his career and his family." But when Florence tries to parlay their connection into a book deal, it is she who ends up losing her job. Oddly, though, she's not worried about being broke and jobless—she's sure the universe is watching out for her. And she may be right, because two weeks later she's asked to apply for a job as personal assistant to Maud Dixon herself. This delightful publishing satire continues for about half the book, and just when you're thinking "Didn't they say this was a thriller?" the wild suspense plot kicks in. The story leaps from an isolated estate outside Hudson, New York, to the dusty medinas and towering cliffs of Morocco, and here the comparisons to The Talented Mr. Ripley start to make sense. At every diabolical twist and turn, Andrews' impish sense of humor peeks around the corner to jack up the fun.
Terrific characters, vivid settings, and a deliciously dastardly, cunningly constructed plot.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-50031-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Though the novel eventually begins to sag under the weight of all its plot elements, fans of the psychological thriller will...
A pathological liar, a woman in a coma, a childhood diary, an imaginary friend, an evil sister—this is an unreliable-narrator novel with all the options.
"A lot of people would think I have a dream job, but nightmares are dreams too." Was it only a week ago Amber Reynolds thought her job as an assistant radio presenter was a nightmare? Now it's Dec. 26 (or Boxing Day, because we're in England), and she's lying in a hospital bed seemingly in a coma, fully conscious but unable to speak or move. We won't learn what caused her condition until the end of the book, and the journey to that revelation will be complicated by many factors. One: She doesn't remember her accident. Two: As she confesses immediately, "Sometimes I lie." Three: It's a story so complicated that even after the truth is exposed, it will take a while to get it straight in your head. As Amber lies in bed recalling the events of the week that led to her accident, several other narrative threads kick up in parallel. In the present, she's visited in her hospital room by her husband, a novelist whose affections she has come to doubt. Also her sister, with whom she shares a dark secret, and a nasty ex-boyfriend whom she ran into in the street the week before. He works as a night porter at the hospital, giving him unfortunate access to her paralyzed but not insensate body. Interwoven with these sections are portions of a diary, recounting unhappy events that happened 25 years earlier from a 9-year-old child's point of view. Feeney has loaded her maiden effort with possibilities for twists and reveals—possibly more than strictly necessary—and they hit like a hailstorm in the last third of the book. Blackmail, forgery, secret video cameras, rape, poisoning, arson, and failing to put on a seat belt all play a role.
Though the novel eventually begins to sag under the weight of all its plot elements, fans of the psychological thriller will enjoy this ambitious debut.Pub Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-14484-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
An often engrossing crime epic about a mobster family’s intricate machinations.
A novel that spans a decade in the lives of an organized crime family.
In a story set in 1973 in small-town Wheeling, West Virginia, author Florio depicts a tightly knit clan struggling in an era when the Italian American mob is proliferating across the country. The author expertly sets the novel’s grim, menacing tone early on with the coldblooded contract killing of someone who paid for betrayal and treachery in blood. Protagonist Johnny Mesagne is described as someone who is “handsome, in a hoodlum sort of way,” and who’s a divorced father to estranged adult son J.J. Jenkins. Six years have passed since Johnny was a part of Wheeling’s mob faction led by kingpin Paul Verbania. His abrupt departure from the group has caused many changes in his life and in his circle of friends. Meanwhile, J.J. finds his father’s former mob involvement to be intriguing, and he decides to dip his foot into the life himself, but he does so in reckless, thrill-seeking ways, such as romancing Verbania’s girlfriend, Leslie Fitzpatrick, a deadly, impulsive move that plays out across the entire novel. Johnny’s never taken an interest in his only son until now, but he feels he must rescue him from a way of life in which people are sometimes “rubbed out.” The narrative volleys between 1963 and 1973, showing how Johnny moves up the Wheeling gang echelons and then abandons it all to live clean and manage a bar. He then works hard to shield his son from the mob’s nefarious influences. Ten years later, J.J.’s life is in danger. Is it too late for Johnny to save him?
Readers will find that this book is a distinct departure from Florio’s previous publications, which focused mainly on football commentary and history and drew from the author’s livelihood as a sportswriter, commentator, and television and radio show host. Although this story is built upon a well-worn crime-fiction premise, the author’s take is a refreshing one and incorporates notes of suspense, terror, family drama, and black humor. He draws on true events in a fictional story that has a lot of moving parts, but they all manage to coalesce into a thrilling reading experience. Florio’s cast of characters—some good, others much less so—are all crystal-clear in their intentions and demeanor, which makes the story a devilish indulgence. Tough-guy Bobby and Paul’s driver, Vinny, are superbly portrayed as bumbling henchmen with poor judgment; Vinny is introduced with the line, “How the fuck did you forget the silencers?” Fans of The Godfather and The Sopranos will recognize and appreciate the overtures that Florio makes on behalf of his creatively inspired mob family—particularly the central ordeal concerning Johnny and his son. Every stylistic nuance and dialogue inflection feels pitch-perfect, and every character is believably hypersensitive to law enforcement and the dire consequences of a botched job. The novel’s conclusion has a twist that’s truly a surprise.
An often engrossing crime epic about a mobster family’s intricate machinations.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: PFT Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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