A thrilling newspaper tale, as funny as it is darkly dramatic.
An ailing New York City tabloid struggles to survive amid tumultuous labor negotiations and the threat of scandal in this blend of comedy and drama.
When Fred Rogan becomes the new publisher of the New York Globe, he inherits a slew of problems. The paper is financially floundering, and it seems impossible to turn around without a massive investment in its aging printing and delivery systems. Unfortunately, Harold “Spike” Baker, the president of Telluride, the paper’s parent company, has no intention of making such an investment unless the tabloid can prove itself far more profitable—a Catch-22 that bedevils Rogan. But he’s given another path to success by Baker: significantly lower labor costs and “break the back of these goddamned unions,” and an investment commitment could be forthcoming. But while Rogan interprets this as an imprimatur to collaboratively partner with the unions, Baker wants war and hires Ida Farrow, a lawyer known for battling unions. And she doesn’t seem to see the prospect of war as a metaphor either—she brings in a team of “Army Rangers, Navy Seals, and some ex-Marines” both to intimidate the union workers and prepare for violence. Meanwhile, a peculiar man named James Turner squats outside the paper’s main printing plant in Brooklyn in a makeshift shack, blocking the construction of a new parking lot. He claims he’s defending the property rights of the Lenape and refuses to compromise. Gwenn Parkinson, a new reporter for the Globe infamous for her aggressively sensationalistic celebrity reporting, investigates Turner’s plight and uncovers the possibility that he has been egregiously wronged by the paper. This plotline manages to be as comically clever as it is poignantly affecting, an artful balancing act that characterizes Talbot’s deft storytelling.
The author paints a captivating tableau of New York in the 1980s, paradoxically as glamorous as it is mercurially violent. In addition, he furnishes an edifying portrait of the newspaper industry—his knowledge of it is astonishing—though he has a tendency to inter readers under a mountain of technical details. Farrow, in particular, turns out to be a captivating character, a woman not only of considerable lawyerly talent, but also bottomless aggression. She announces herself fearlessly to her union adversaries: “Now whatever you’ve heard about me, there’s only one thing that’s important. It took momma ten months to have Ida Farrow. Before I slid down from her womb I needed to know what bedroom I got and what school I’d go to. I was born negotiating, gentlemen.” The central strength of Talbot’s writing is a strange ambiguity—the audience will not be sure, even after reading the entire novel, if this is a comedy or a tragedy. The sheer weirdness of Turner’s quixotic challenge to the Globe is often hilariously silly, but the reasons for it, only incrementally shared by the author, are heartbreakingly sad. It takes painstaking sensitivity to allow these two incongruous strains to coexist in the same literary cosmos, something Talbot certainly achieves.
A thrilling newspaper tale, as funny as it is darkly dramatic.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2022
ISBN: 9798218072292
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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