A pleasantly bookish ghost story.
Historical fiction entwining the fate of a bereaved Harvard student and the late Harry Elkins Widener.
Harvard’s Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library was endowed by his mother in memory of her son, who was just 27 years old when he went down, along with his father, on the Titanic. Lore has it that he parted from his mother in the lifeboat to go back to his stateroom for a priceless book; Richman’s tale grows out of her notion that this was not the real reason. Oh yay, another doomed love story on the Titanic! To wend her fictional way to that watery heartbreak, the author has invented a lonely Harvard junior named Violet Hutchins, who gets a job as a page at the Widener in 1992, the fall after her boyfriend, Hugo, drowns while they are out for a swim, and also breathes life back into Harry Widener himself, now a spirit who lives in his eponymous library and uses his considerable ghostly powers to set Violet on the trail of a story no one has ever known, the story of his secret love. “The one thing a ghost learns rather quickly is that the living fail to appreciate subtlety when it comes to receiving otherworldly communications,” Harry says, before chucking books off the shelf and filling the air with the scent of his pipe tobacco to get Violet’s attention. Richman also weaves in the true story of vandalism at the Widener in the 1990s, blame for which shifts toward poor Violet, who’s making everyone nervous with her Ouija board and her growing interest in communicating with the dead. The progress of her investigation unfolds in tandem with Harry’s account of his doomed love, moving more slowly than would be ideal, but finally snapping together as one thought they might. The novel has a YA feel and indeed might be shared with a history-minded young reader.
A pleasantly bookish ghost story.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781454953210
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.
A struggling writer finds an unexpected muse when a mysterious man shows up at her cabin.
Petra Rose used to pump out a bestselling book every six months, but then the adaptation happened—that is, the disastrous film adaptation of her most famous book. The movie changed the book’s storyline so egregiously that fans couldn’t forgive her, and the ensuing harassment sent Petra into hiding and gave her a serious case of writer’s block. Petra’s one hope is her solo writing retreat at a remote cabin, where she can escape the distractions of real life and focus on her next book, a story about a woman having an affair with a cop. When officer Nathaniel Saint shows up at her cabin door, inspiration comes flooding back. Much like the character from Petra’s book, Saint is married, and he’s willing to be Petra’s muse, helping her get into her characters’ heads. Petra’s book is practically writing itself, but is the game she’s playing a little too dangerous? Does she know when to stop—and, more importantly, is Saint willing to stop? Hoover is no stranger to controversial movie adaptations and internet backlash, but she clarifies in a note to readers that she’s “just a writer writing about a writer” and that no further connections to her own life are contained in these pages—which is a good thing, because the book takes some horrifying twists and turns. Petra finds herself inexplicably attracted to Saint, even as she describes him as “such an asshole,” and her feelings for him veer between love and hate. The novel serves as a meta commentary on the dark romance genre—as Petra puts it, “Even though, as readers, we wouldn’t want to live out some of the fantasies we read about, it doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy reading those things.”
A dark and twisty look at just how far one woman is willing to go to find inspiration.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781662539374
Page Count: -
Publisher: Montlake
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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