A crafty murder mystery in the multihued form of an urban symphony.
A disquieting and savage era of not-so-benign neglect of at-risk Black New Yorkers during the Reagan years is evoked with poignant warmth and unflinching precision.
It’s the middle of the Morning-in-America 1980s and the era’s go-go financial opulence is an unfounded rumor in East Harlem, where the crack epidemic has taken hold along with its attendant crime wave and debilitating malaise. One very early morning in October 1985, Matilda “Twin” Johnson, a lifelong El Barrio resident and self-styled “roaming soul” who is “almost six feet tall…[and] a kiss away from three hundred pounds,” comes across the body of 12-year-old Tyrone Jackson in a pile of garbage. Going against her initial instincts and the stringent demands of her drug-dealing Uncle Manuel, Twin notifies the police. Tyrone’s mother, Anita, a military widow and postal worker, is devastated and determined to solve his murder with help from her “crazy” friend Wanda, whose own son Daryl is more prone to trouble with the NYPD than Tyrone. The women are aided by their earnest, ambitious neighborhood pastor, the Rev. Carl Harpon, whose church has been burned down in a suspicious fire. (Daryl is a prime suspect.) Reynolds—author of Knee-Deep in Wonder (2003)—deftly weaves in the lives of other local residents, including the mothers who, like Anita and Wanda, no longer have a church to go to but maintain their solidarity by getting the neighborhood involved in finding out who killed Tyrone, whose own final days are recounted in flashbacks. As the months pass, Anita and Wanda are pulled deeper into despair by false leads, dead ends, and the toxic allure of crack itself, even while their neighbors continue to help search for Tyrone’s killer. Reading this engrossing novel is like watching East Harlem morph into the shape of a shabby but tenacious dreamer imprisoned in a time and place where dreams can be snuffed out as haphazardly as the lives of its young.
A crafty murder mystery in the multihued form of an urban symphony.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780593316863
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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