A rousing story of love and sacrifice.
Kibbie’s (Rustle, 2017) novel follows a British gay couple who explore their pasts to make peace with their present.
In London, small-business accountant James Wilde and his partner, Arthur Pensinger, a construction worker, are in love but fear for their safety daily. They tell no one of their union; they’re simply “two lads sharing the rent” to the outside world, because “if anyone knew the truth, they would go to jail.” The men acquire their first television, truly a luxury item, in order to witness British history in motion as Queen Elizabeth II is crowned. The men soon learn of the heartbreaking death of their close friend Harold Marlin, the butler to wealthy Baroness Lady Barlow who’d cared for them as children, many years prior. James and Arthur evacuated London to avoid the Nazi bombings during World War II, and they were taken in at the baroness’s Willowind House. Harold’s dying wish spurs James and Arthur to travel to Scotland to investigate whether the now-deceased baroness’s suicidal son Matthew is still alive. With eccentric, hard-drinking landlady Viola Wylit and Harold’s grandson, Lance, along for the ride, the men begin digging into Matthew’s past. Over the course of this historical novel, Kibbie displays a talent for characterization, and he also exhibits a firm grasp of British conversational style as well as common colloquialisms, which add an air of authenticity to an already engrossing story. Even more enticing are the flashbacks that reveal details of James’ and Arthur’s childhoods. A sense of suspense and mystery propel the narrative forward, which eventually results in surprising confessions and an emotional reunion. Overall, it’s an ambitious, dynamic debut.
A rousing story of love and sacrifice.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-947041-32-5
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Running Wild Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.
Devastated by her mother’s death, Brett Bohlinger consumes a bottle of outrageously expensive Champagne and trips down the stairs at the funeral luncheon. Add embarrassed to devastated. Could things get any worse? Of course they can, and they do—at the reading of the will.
Instead of inheriting the position of CEO at the family’s cosmetics firm—a position she has been groomed for—she’s given a life list she wrote when she was 14 and an ultimatum: Complete the goals, or lose her inheritance. Luckily, her mother, Elizabeth, has crossed off some of the more whimsical goals, including running with the bulls—too risky! Having a child, buying a horse, building a relationship with her (dead) father, however, all remain. Brad, the handsome attorney charged with making sure Brett achieves her goals, doles out a letter from her mother with each success. Warmly comforting, Elizabeth’s letters uncannily—and quite humorously—predict Brett’s side of the conversations. Brett grudgingly begins by performing at a local comedy club, an experience that proves both humiliating and instructive: Perfection is overrated, and taking risks is exhilarating. Becoming an awesome teacher, however, seems impossible given her utter lack of classroom management skills. Teaching homebound children offers surprising rewards, though. Along Brett’s journey, many of the friends (and family) she thought would support her instead betray her. Luckily, Brett’s new life is populated with quirky, sharply drawn characters, including a pregnant high school student living in a homeless shelter, a psychiatrist with plenty of time to chat about troubled children, and one of her mother’s dearest, most secret companions. A 10-step program for the grief-stricken, Brett’s quest brings her back to love, the best inheritance of all.
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.Pub Date: July 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-345-54087-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Twenty New England horror shorts by Stephen King (and a painfully lofty introduction by old pro John D. MacDonald). King, of course, is the 30-year-old zillionaire who poured the pig's blood on Carrie, woke the living dead in 'Salem's Lot, and gave a bad name to precognition in The Shining. The present collection rounds up his magazine pieces, mainly from Cavalier, and also offers nine stories not previously published. He is as effective in the horror vignette as in the novel. His big opening tale, "Jerusalem's Lot"—about a deserted village—is obviously his first shot at 'Salem's Lot and, in its dependence on a gigantic worm out of Poe and Lovecraft, it misses the novel's gorged frenzy of Vampireville. But most of the other tales go straight through you like rats' fangs. "Graveyard Shift" is about cleaning out a long unused factory basement that has a subbasement—a hideous colony of fat giant blind legless rats that are mutating into bats. It's a story you may wish you hadn't read. You'll enjoy the laundry mangle that becomes possessed and begins pressing people into bedsheets (don't think about that too much), a flu bug that destroys mankind and leaves only a beach blanket party of teenagers ("Night Surf"), and a beautiful lady vampire and her seven-year-old daughter abroad in a Maine blizzard ("One for the Road"). Bizarre dripperies, straight out of Tales from the Crypt comics. . . a leprous distillation.
Pub Date: Jan. 20, 1977
ISBN: 0385129912
Page Count: 367
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1977
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stephen King’s “Jerusalem’s Lot” to Be Epix Show
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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