A lively, if slightly shapeless, novel of Windy City life.
Allen’s debut novel follows a teenage boy and a priest with a shadowy past through a Chicago neighborhood in flux.
On the South Side of Chicago in 1970, Gary “Weezer” O’Donnell is just a kid, but he feels as if he’s on the cusp of manhood. It’s the summer after seventh grade, and he resolves that he’s done with childish things—so much so, in fact, that he maliciously tells his young friend that there’s no such thing as Santa Claus during a street hockey game. Father Tom Mallon is a 30-something priest from the neighborhood who has a troubled past; his former life as a gambler casts a shadow over his present, as his parishes have had a habit of unexpectedly coming up short on funds. Tensions are rising in the all-White neighborhood, as a local group of neo-Nazis, whom Weezer immediately distrusts, makes some racist residents willing to resort to violence to maintain the segregated status quo. As Tom grapples with his complicated past, Weezer attempts to navigate his confusing present, which is leading him down a potentially dangerous path. Allen’s enthusiastic prose skillfully captures the setting’s variety and drama, as when Weezer takes in the people at a White Sox game: “There were couples on dates, families, groups of boys and girls by themselves, old wrinkly men in straw hats….These were people that Weezer didn’t see in his neighborhood….He wanted to walk up to the old man in the straw hat and ask him, where was he from?” The plot is episodic, bouncing back and forth between Weezer and Tom and between the 1970s of the present and the 1950s of Tom’s youth. Although the book captures something of the feel of the neighborhood at the time, readers may wish for a more unified story. Overall, Weezer’s and Tom’s narratives feel cobbled together somewhat arbitrarily, and it’s not entirely clear why they’ve been paired together. Still, Chicagoans, in particular, are sure to enjoy aspects of this slice-of-life work.
A lively, if slightly shapeless, novel of Windy City life.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Purpletooth Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Great crime fiction.
An apparent suicide threatens to destroy an Irish farm town in the final volume of French’s Cal Hooper trilogy.
In the fictional western Ireland townland of Ardnakelty, “there’s a girl going after missing.” Soon young Rachel Holohan is found dead in the river. Shortly before, she had stopped at Lena Dunne’s home, and nothing had seemed amiss. The medical examiner determines she’d swallowed antifreeze, and he presumes she then fell from a bridge into the water. The medical examiner and the town agree she’d died by suicide. But there is far more to the plot: 16-year-old Trey Reddy thinks Tommy Moynihan murdered Rachel. Moynihan doles out favors and punishments to the local townsfolk, who know it’s best not to cross him. Now rumors spread that Moynihan wants land and has a secret plan to forcibly buy up parcels from the locals. A factory will be built, or a great big data center, or who knows what. If Tommy’s son, Eugene, can get elected to the local council, then compulsory purchase orders for land will follow, and the farms will disappear. Eugene, who’d been romantically involved with Rachel, is wonderfully described as “on the weedy edge of good-looking” and just fine as long as you “don’t have high expectations in the way of chins.” Lena is engaged to the American Cal Hooper, an ex-cop turned woodworker. They are “more or less raising” Trey, and these three core characters are drawn into the mystery of Rachel’s death and may have to face the looming clouds of civilizational change for Ardnakelty. Lena is chastised for “asking your wee questions all round the townland,” and Trey wants to quit school, against Cal’s advice. Finally, the story’s best line: “You can’t go killing people just because they deserve it.”
Great crime fiction.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593493465
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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